i ^ }!) t> w t m i i«4 




Class XSi4ilt 
HnnV . AAi 

CDpightl\l"_li?li_ 

COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT.' 



INDIA, 

in the time of 

Clive and Hastings 

SCALE OF MILES 
50 100 ?00 300 400 500 




Zbc Xaftc jenglieb Claeeice 



MACAULAY'S ESSAYS 



ON 



CLIVE AND HASTINGS 



EDITED FOR SCHOOL USE 



ALPHONSO G. NEWCOMER 

PROFESSOR OF ENGLISH IN THE LELAND STANFORD JUNIOR UNIVERSITY 



CHICAGO 
SCOTT, -FORESMAN AND COMPANY 



) ^0^ 



Copyright 1909 
By SCOTT, FORESMAN AND COMPANY 



(©Ci.A25l'24(> 



PEEFACE. 

Julius Caesar and Lord Macaulay have been much 
abused writers. They did not mean to write immortal 
works, least of all did they mean to write immortal 
exercises for the school-room. But when a man writes 
just as he would fight on the field of battle or in 
the political arena, with what Quintilian describes as 
"force, point, and vehemence of style,^' he must expect 
the school-boy to linger over his pages. This is right, this 
is not abuse; the abuse is done when live literature is 
transformed into dead rhetoric, a thing for endless 
exercises in etymologies and constructions, until the 
very name of the author becomes odious. Perhaps it 
is late for this complaint; we flatter ourselves that 
we are coming to reason and balance in our methods. 
Certainly I should not try to discourage study, and 
liberal study, of the mechanics of composition. And 
there is no better medium for such study than 
Macaulay^s essays. But I trust that every teacher to 
whom the duty of conducting such study falls will not 
at the same time forget that literature is an art which 
touches life very closely, and has its springs far back 
in the human spirit. 

With the hope of encouraging this attitude I have 
been willing to assume the responsibility of making yet 
another annotated text of Macaulay. Eealizing that, 
in dealing with a writer whose work touches the domain 

5 



6 PEEFACE 

of pure literature chie% by virtue of its manner* 
there is no escape from considerations of style, I have 
frankly put the matter foremost. But I have tried to 
take a broad view of its significance, and in particular 
I have tried to do Macaulay justice. Altogether too 
many pupils have carried away from the study of him 
the narrow idea that his great achievement consisted 
in using one or two very patent (but, if they only knew 
it, very petty) rhetorical devices. It has been the pri- 
mary aim of my Introduction to set these matters in 
their right perspective. I have not outlined specific 
methods of study, which are to be found everywhere by 
those who value them, but both Introduction and Notes 
contain many suggestions. It seems better to stop at 
this. Even the few illustrations I have used have been 
preferably drawn from essays not here printed. No 
editor should wish to take from teacher or pupil the 
profit of investigation or the stimulus of discovery. 

There is another matter in which I should like to 
counsel vigilance, and that is the habit of requiring 
pupils to trace allusions, quotations, etc. The practice 
has been much abused, and. a warning seems especially 
necessary in the study of a writer like Macaulay, who 
crowds his pages with instances and illustrations. It 
is profitable to follow him in the process of bringing 
together a dozen things to enforce his point, but it 
is not profitable to reverse the process and allow our- 
selves to be led away from the subject in hand into a 
multitude of imrelated matters. Such practices are 
ruinous to the intellect. We must concentrate attention, 
not dissipate it. Only when we fail to catch the full 
*Cf Introduction, section 19. 



PBEFACE 7 

significance of an allusion, should we look it up. Then 
we must see to it that we bring back from our research 
just what occasioned the allusion, just what bears on the 
immediate passage. Other facts will be picked up by 
the way and may come useful in good time, but for the 
purpose of our present study we should insist on the 
vital relation of every fact contributed. 

So earliest am I upon this point that I must illustrate. 
At one place Macaulay writes: "Do we believe that 
Erasmus and Fracastorius wrote Latin as well as Dr. 
Eobertson and Sir Walter Scott wrote English? And 
are there not in the Dissertation on India^ the last of 
Dr. Robertson's works, in Waverleij, in Marmion, 
Scotticisms at which a London apprentice would 
laugh?" Why should we be told (to pick out One of 
these half-dozen allusions) that Dr. Eobertson's first 
name was William, that he lived from 1721 to 1793, 
and that he wrote such and such books? With all 
respect for the memory of Dr. Eobertson, I submit that 
this is not the place to learn about him and his histories. 
Macaulay's allusion to him is not explained in the 
least b}^ giving his date. Yet there is something here 
to interpret, simple though it be. Let us put questions 
until we are sure that the pupil understands that Dr. 
Eobertson, being a Scot, did not write wholly idiom- 
atic English— English, say, of the London type — and 
that this is one illustration of the general truth that a 
man can write with purity only in his native tongue. 
It is such exercises in interpretation that I should like 
to see substituted for the disastrous game of hunting 
allusions. 

jSTo doubt many apparent departures from this prin- 



8 PEEFACE 

ciple will be found in my notes and glossary. For 
instance, at the beginning of the essay on Lord Clive 
we are told that "every schoolboy knows who impris- 
oned Montezuma, and who strangled Atahualpa." For 
the editor to proceed at once to give this information 
looks like climbing very solemnly on the pedant's stool. 
But every schoolboy does not know, and so the informa- 
tion is given. Yet, speaking as a teacher, I doubt whether 
I should try to make the boy learn it, since he probably 
would not remember facts acquired in such a remote 
relation. I should be more concerned to make sure 
that he realizes just what Macaulay here in every sen- 
tence is trying to impress upon his English readers, 
namely, that a conquest of a far-away people by an 
alien race has very unreasonably aroused more interest 
than a similar conquest made by their own. It is an 
appeal to British pride. It is a rhetorical bid for 
interest in the story he is about to tell. 

The primary aim of the glossary is to include only 
names and terms not familiar or not easily found, and 
then to give only such information as is to the point. 
Doubtless it sometimes goes beyond this ; yet the general 
principle should hold, that when allusions are self- 
explaining we should rest content with our text. 

A. G. N. 
Stanford University^ California, August, 1909. 



CONTENTS. 

PAGE 

Preface 5 

ixtroduction 11 

Chronology and Bibliography 37 

The Essays : 

lord clive 39 

warren hastings 140 

Notes 281 

Glossary 295 



INTEODUCTION. 

When, in 1825, Francis Jeffrey, Editor of the 
Edinburgh Review, searching for "some clever young 
^ ., , , A^ nian who would write for ns,'^ laid 

1. Macaulay's Ad- ^ 

vent in the Edin- his hands upon Thomas Babington 
burgh Review. Macaulay, he did not know that he 
was marking a red-letter day in the calendar of English 
journalism. Through the two decades and more of its 
existence, the Review had gone on serving its patrons 
with the respectable dulness of Lord Brougham and the 
respectable vivacity of its editor, and the patrons had 
apparently dreamed of nothing better until the mo- 
mentous August when the young Fellow of Trinity, not 
yet twenty-five, flashed upon its pages with his essay 
on Milton. x\nd for the next two decades the essays 
that followed from the same pen became so far the 
mainstay of the magazine that booksellers declared it 
"sold, or did not sell, according as there were, or were 
not, articles by Mr. Macaulay." Yet Jeffrey was not 
without some inkling of the significance of the event, 
for upon receipt of the first manuscript he wrote to its 
author the words so often quoted : "The more I think, 
the less I can conceive where you picked up that style.'^ 
Thus early was the finger of criticism pointed toward 
the one thing that has always been most conspicuously 
associated with Macaulay's name. 

11 



12 MACAULAY'S ESSAYS 

English prose, at this date, was still clinging to the 
traditions of its measured eighteenth-century stateliness. 

2. Effect on Prose. ^^\ *^^ ^^^^ ^^^ ^^^^^J g^^^ ^^^ 
of it, and the formalism which sat 

so elegantly upon Addison and not uneasily upon 
Johnson had stiffened into pedantry, scarcely re- 
lieved by the awkward attempts of the younger 
journalists to give it spirit and freedom. It was this 
languishing prose which Macaulay, perhaps more than 
any other one writer, deserves the credit of rejuvenating 
with that wonderful something which Jeffrey was 
pleased to call "style." Macaulay himself would cer- 
tainly have deprecated the association of his fame with 
a mere synonym for rhetoric, and we should be wrong- 
ing him if we did not hasten to add that stjde, rightly 
understood, is a very large and significant thing, com- 
prehending, indeed, a man's whole intellectual and 
emotional attitude toward those phases of life with 
which he comes into contact. It is the man's manner 
of reacting upon the world, his manner of expressing 
himself to the world; and the world has little beyond 
the manner of a man's expression by which to judge 
of the man himself. A good style, even in the narrower 
sense of a good command of language, of a masterly 
and individual manner of presenting thought, is no 
mean accomplishment, and if Macaulay had done noth- 
ing else than revivify English' prose, which is, just pos- 
sibly, his most enduring achievement, he would have 
little reason to complain. What he accomplished in this 
direction and how, it is our chief purpose here to ex- 
plain. In the meantime we shall do well to glance at 



INTEODUCTION 13 

his other achievements and take some note of his 
equipment. 

Praed has left this description of him : "There came 
up a short, manly figure, marvelously upright, with a 
bad neckcloth, and one hand in his 
waistcoat-pocket." We read here, 
easily enough, brusqueness, precision without fastidious- 
ness, and self-confidence. These are all prominent traits 
of the man, and they all show in his work. Add kind- 
ness and moral rectitude, which scarcely show there, 
and humor, which shows only in a somewhat unpleasant 
light, and you have a fair portrait. Now these are 
manifestly the attributes of a man who knows what 
worldly comfort and physical well-being are, a man of 
good digestive and assimilative powers, well-fed, incapa- 
ble of worry, born to succeed. 

In truth, Macaulay was a man of remarkable vitality 
and energy, and though he died too early — at the 
beginning of his sixtieth year — ^he began his work 
young and continued it with almost unabated vigor to 
the end. But his "work" (as we are in the habit of 
naming that which a man leaves behind him), volum- 
inous as it is, represents only one side of his activity. 
There was the early-assUmed burden of repairing his 
father's broken fortunes, and providing for the family 
of younger brothers and sisters. The burden, it is true, 
was assumed with characteristic cheerfulness — it could 
not destroy for him the worldly comfort we have spoken 
of — but it entailed heavy responsibilities for a young 
man. It forced him to seek salaried positions, such 
as the post of commissioner of bankruptcy, when he 
might have been more congenially employed. Then 



14 • oMACAULAY 'S ESSAYS 

there were the many years spent in the service of the 
government as a Whig member of the House of Com- 
mons and as Cabinet Minister during the exciting period 
of the Eeform Bill and the Anti-Corn-Law League, 
with all that such service involved — study of politics, 
canvassing, countless dinners, public and private, speech- 
making in Parliament and out, reading and making 
reports, endless committee meetings, endless sessions. 
There were the three years and a half spent in India, 
drafting a penal code. And there was, first and last, 
the acquisition of the knowledge that made possible 
this varied activity, — the years at the University, the 
study of law and jurisprudence, the reading, not of 
books, but of entire national literatures, the ransacking 
of libraries and the laborious deciphering of hundreds 
of manuscripts in the course of historical research. 
Perhaps this is falling into Macaulay's trick of exaggera- 
tion, but it is not easy to exaggerate the mental feats of a 
man who could carry in his memory works like Paradise 
Lost and Pilgrim's Progress and who was able to put 
it on record that in thirteen months he had read thirty 
classical authors, most of them entire and many of them 
twice, and among them such voluminous writers as 
Euripides, Herodotus, Plato, Plutarch, Livy, and 
Cicero. Nor was the classical literature a special field 
with him ; Italian, Spanish, French and the wildernesses 
of the English drama and the English novel (not exclud- 
ing the ^^trashy'^) were all explored. We may well be 
astounded that the man who could do all these things 
in a lifetime of moderate compass, and who was besides 
such a tireless pedestrian that he was "forever on his 



INTRODUCTION 15 

feet indoors as well as out," could find time to produce 
so much literature of his own. 

That literature divides itself into at least five divi- 
sions. There are, first, the Essays, which he produced 

at intervals all throusjh life. There 
4. His Work. ^^ a i It, t 

are the ISpeeclies which were de- 
livered on the floor of Parliament between his first 
election in 1830 and his last in 1852, and which rank 
very high in that grade of oratory which is just below 
the highest. There is the Indian Penal Code, not 
altogether his own work and not literature of course, 
yet praised by Justice Stephen as one of the most 
remarkable and satisfactory instruments of its kind ever 
drafted. There are the Poems, published in 1842, 
adding little to his fame and not a great deal to English 
literature, yet very respectable achievements in the field 
of the modem romantic ballad. Finally, there is the 
unfinished History of England from the Accession of 
James the Second, his last, his most ambitious, and 
probably, all things considered, his most successful 
work. 

The History and Essays comprise virtually all of this 
product that the present generation cares to read. 
5. History of Upon the History, indeed, Macaulay 
England. staked his claim to future remem- 

brance, regarding it as the great work of his life. He 
was exceptionally well equipped for the undertaking. 
He had such a grasp of universal history as few men 
have been able to secure, and a detailed knowledge of 
the period of English history under contemplation 
equalled by none. But he delayed the undertaking too 



^Q MACAULAY'S ESSAYS 

long, and he allowed his time and energy to be dissi- 
pated in obedience to party calls. Death overtook him 
in the midst of his labors. Even thus, it is clear that 
he underestimated the magnitude of the task he had set 
Mmself. For he proposed to cover a period of nearly 
a century and a half; the four volumes and a fraction 
which he completed actually cover about fifteen years. 
His plan involved too much detail. It has been called 
pictorial history writing, and such it was. History was 
to be as vital and as human as romance. It was to be 
in every sense a restoration of the life of the past. 
Macaulay surely succeeded in this aim, as his fascinating 
third chapter will always testify; whether the aim 
were a laudable one, we cannot stop here to discuss. 
Historians will continue to point out the defects of the 
work, its diffuseness, its unphilosophical character, per- 
haps its partisan spirit. But it remains a magnificent 
fragment, and it will be read by thousands who could 
never be persuaded to look into dryer though possibly 
sounder works. Indeed, there is no higher tribute to 
its greatness than the objection that has sometimes been 
brought against it — namely, that it treats a compara- 
tively unimportant era of England's history with such 
fulness and brilliance, and has attracted to it so many 
readers, that the other eras are thrown sadly out of 
perspective. 

But Macaulay's name is popularly associated with 

that body of essays which in bulk alone (always 

excepting Sainte-Beuve's) are scarcely 

Essays. exceeded by the product of any other 

essay-writer in an essay-writing age. And the popular 

judgment which has insisted upon holding to this sup- 



INTKODUCTION 17 

posedly ephemeral work is not far wrong. With all 
their faults upon them, until we have something better 
in kind to replace them, we cannot consent to let them 
go. In one sense, their range is not wide, for they fall 
naturally into but two divisions, the historical and the 
critical. To these Mr. Morison* would add a third, the 
controversial, comprising the four essays on Mill, 
Sadler, Southey, and Gladstone; but these are com- 
paratively unimportant. In another sense, however, 
their range is very wide. For each one gathers about 
a central subject a mass of details that in the hands 
of any other writer would be bewildering, while the 
total knowledge that supports the bare array of facts 
and perpetual press of allusions betrays a scope that, 
to the ordinary mind, is quite beyond comprehension. 
And the more remarkable must this work appear when 
we consider the manner of its production. Most of 
the essays were published anonymously in the Edinburgh 
Review, a few early ones in Knight^s Quarterly Maga- 
zine, five (those on Atterbury^ Bunyan, Goldsmith, 
Johnson, and Pitt), written late in life, in the Ency- 
clopcedia Britannica. The writing of them was always 
an avocation with Macaulay, never a vocation. Those 
produced during his parliamentary life were usually 
written in the hours between early rising and breakfast. 
Some were composed at a distance from his books. He 
scarcely dreamed of their living beyond the quarter of 
their publication, certainly not beyond the generation 
for whose entertainment they were written with all the 
devices to catch applause and all the disregard of 
permanent merit which writing for such a purpose 
*J. Cotter Morison: Macaulay. 



18 MACAULAY'S ESSAYS 

invites. He could scarcely be induced, even after they 
were pirated and republished in America, to reissue 
them in a collected edition, with his revision and under 
his name. These facts should be remembered in mitiga- 
tion of the severe criticism to which they are sometimes 
subjected. 

Between the historical and the critical essays we are 
not called upon to decide, though the decision is by 
no means difficult. Macaulay was essentially a historian, 
a story-teller; and the historical essay, or short mono- 
graph on the events of a single period, such as often 
group themselves about some great statesman or soldier, 
he made peculiarly his own. He did not invent it, as 
Mr. Morison points out, but he expanded and improved 
it until he "left it complete and a thing of power." 
Fully a score of his essays — more than half the total 
number — are of this description, the most and the best 
of them dealing with English history. Chief among 
them are the essays on Hallam, Temple, the Pitts, Clive, 
and Warren Hastings. The critical essays — upon John- 
son, Addison, Bunyan, and other men of letters — are 
in every way as attractive reading as the historical. 
They must take a lower rank only because Macaulay 
lacked some of the primary requisites of a successful 
critic — broad and deep sympathies, refined tastes, and 
nice perception of the more delicate tints and shadings 
that count for almost everything in a work of high art. 
His critical judgments are likely to be blunt, positive, 
and superficial. But they are never actually shallow 
and rarely without a modicum of truth. And they are 
never uninteresting. For, true to his narrative instinct, 
he always interweaves biography. And besides, the 



INTEODUCTION 19 

essays have the same rhetorical qualities that marK with 
distinction all the prose he has written, that is to say, 
the same masterly method and the same compelling 
style. It is to this method and style that, after our 
rapid review of Macanlay^s aims and accomplishments, 
we are now ready to turn. 

There were two faculties of Macaulay^s mind that 
set his work far apart from other work in the same 

7. Organizing field — ^the faculties of organization 
Faculty. g^-j^^ illustration. He saw things in 

their right relation and he knew how to make others see 
them thus. If he was describing, he never thrust 
minor details into the foreground. If he was narrating, 
he never "got ahead of his story." The importance of 
this is not sufficiently recognized. Many writers do not 
know what organization means. They do not know 
that in all great and successful literary work it is nine- 
tenths of the labor. Yet consider a moment. History 
is a very complex thing: divers events may be simul- 
taneous in their occurrence ; or one crisis may be slowly 
evolving from many causes in many places. It is no 
light task to tell these things one after another and yet 
leave a unified impression, to take up a dozen new 
threads in succession without tangling them and without 
losing the old ones, and to lay them all down at the 
right moment and without confusion. Such is the nar-' 
rator^s task, and it was at this task that Macaulay 
proved himself a past master. He could dispose of a 
number of trivial events in a single sentence. Thus, 
for example, runs his account of the dramatist 
Wycherley's naval career: "He embarked, was present 



20 MACAULAY'S ESSAYS 

at a battle, and celebrated it, on his return, in a copy 
of verses too bad for the bellman/^ On the other hand, 
when it is a question of a great crisis, like the impeach- 
ment of Warren Hastings, he knew how to prepare for 
it with elaborate ceremony and to portray it in a scene 
of the highest dramatic power. 

This faculty of organization shows itself in what we 
technically name structure; and logical and rhetorical 
structure may be studied at their very best in his work. 
His essays are perfect units, made up of many parts, 
systems within systems, that play together without clog 
or friction. You can take them apart like a watch and 
put them together again. But try to rearrange the 
parts and the mechanism is spoiled. Each essay has 
its subdivisions, which in turn are groups of paragraphs. 
And each paragraph is a unit. Take the first paragraph 
of the essay on Clive : the words little interest appear in 
the first sentence, and the word insipid in the last; 
clearly the paragraph deals with a single very definite 
topic. And so with all. Of course the unity manifests 
itself in a hundred ways, but it is rarely wanting. 
Most frequently it takes the form of an expansion of 
a topic given in the first sentence, or a preparation for 
a topic to be announced only in the last. These initial 
and final sentences — often in themselves both aphoristic 
and memorable — serve to mark with the utmost clear- 
ness the different stages in the progress of the essay. 

niustration is of more incidental service, but as used 
by Macaulay becomes highly organic. For his illustra- 

8. Illustrating tions are not far-fetched or laboriously 

Faculty. worked out. They seem to be of one 

piece with his story or argument. His mind was quick 



INTKODUCTION 31 

to detect resemblances and analogies. He was ready 
with a comparison for everything, sometimes with half 
a dozen. For example, Addison's essays, he has occa- 
sion to say, were different every day of the week, and 
yet, to his mind, each day like something — like Horace, 
like Lucian, like the "Tales of Scheherezade." He 
draws long comparisons between Walpole and Town- 
shend, between Congreve and Wycherley, between Essex 
and Yilliers, between the fall of the Carlovingians and 
the fall of the Moguls. He follows np a general state- 
ment with swarms of instances. Have historians been 
given to exaggerating the villainy of Machiavelli? 
Macanlay can name yon half a dozen who did so. Did 
the writers of Charles's faction delight in making their 
opponents appear contemptible? "They have told ns 
that Pym broke down in a speech, that Ireton had his 
nose pulled by Hollis, that the Earl of Northumberland 
cudgelled Henry Marten, that St. John's manners were 
sullen, that Yane had an ugly face, that Cromwell had 
a red nose." Do men fail when they quit their own 
province for another? Newton failed thus; Bentley 
failed; Inigo Jones failed; Wilkie failed. In the 
same way he was ready with quotations. He writes in 
one of his letters : "It is a dangerous thing for a man 
with a very strong memory to read very much. I could 
give you three or four quotations this moment in sup- 
port of that proposition; but I will bring the vicious 
propensity under subjection, if I can." Thus we see 
his mind doing instantly and involuntarily what other 
minds do with infinite pains, bringing together all 
things that have a likeness or a common bearinsf. 



22 MACAULAY'S ESSAYS 

Both of these faculties, for organization and for illus- 
tration, are to be partially explained by his marvelous 
memory. As we have seen, he read 
everything, and he seems to have been 
incapable of forgetting anything. The immense advan- 
tage which this gave him over other men is obvious. 
He who carries his library in his mind wastes no time 
in turning up references; and surveying the whole 
field of his knowledge at once, with outlines and details 
all in immediate range, he should be able to see things 
in their natural perspective. Of course it does not 
follow that a great memory will always enable a man 
to systematize and synthesize, but it should make it 
easier for its possessor than for other men, while the 
power of ready illustration which it affords him is 
beyond question. 

It is precisely these talents that set Macaulay among 
the simplest and clearest of writers, and that account 
10. Clearness and for mucli of his popularity. People 
Simplicity. found that in taking up one of his 
articles they simply read on and on, never puzzling over 
the meaning of a sentence, getting the exact force of 
every statement, and following the trend of thought 
with scarcely a mental effort. And his natural gift of 
making things plain he took pains to support by various 
devices. He constructed his sentences after the simplest 
normal fashion, subject and verb and object, sometimes 
inverting for emphasis, but rarely complicating, and 
always reducing expression to the barest terms. He 
could write, for example, "One advantage the chaplain 
had/' but it is impossible to conceive of his writing. 



INTEODUCTION 23 

"Kow amid all the discomforts and disadvantages with 
which the imfortnnate chaplain was surrounded, there 
was one thing which served to offset them, and which, 
if he chose to take the opportunity of enjoying it, 
might well be regarded as a positive advantage/' One 
will search his pages in vain for loose, trailing clauses 
and involved constructions. His vocabulary was of the 
same simple nature. He had a complete command of 
ordinary English and contented himself with that. He 
rarely ventured beyond the most abridged dictionary. 
An occasional technical term might be required, but 
he was shy of the unfamiliar. He would coin no words 
and he would use no archaisms. Foreign words, when 
fairly naturalized, he employed sparingly. "We shall 
have no disputes about diction,'^ he wrote to ISTapier, 
Jeffrey's successor; ^'the English language is not so 
poor but that I may very well find in it the means of 
contenting both you and myself." 

Now all of these things are wholly admirable, and 
if they constituted the sum total of Macaulay's method, 
as they certainly do constitute the 
chief features of it, we should give 
our word of praise and have done. But he did not stop 
here, and often, unfortunately too often, these things 
are not thought of at all by those who profess to speak 
knowingly of his wonderful "style." For in addition to 
clearness he sought also force, an entirely legitimate 
object in itself and one in which he was merely giving 
way to his oratorical or journalistic instinct. Only, 
his fondness for effect led him too far and into various 
mannerisms, some of which it is quite impossible to 



24: MACAULAY^S ESSAYS 

approve. There is no question but that they are;, as they 
were meant to be, powerfully effective, often rightly so, 
and they are exceedingly interesting to study, but for 
these very reasons the student needs to be warned against 
attaching to them an undue importance. 

Perhaps no one will quarrel with his liking for the 
specific and the concrete. This indeed is not man- 
nerism. It is the natural working 
12. Concreteness. ^ ,i • • , • ■ n . ^. 

01 the imagmative mmd, oi the pic- 
turing faculty, and is of the utmost value in forceful, 
vivid writing. The "ruffs and peaked beards of Theo- 
bald^s^^ make an excellent passing allusion to the social 
life of the time of Queen Elizabeth and James the First. 
The manoeuvres of an army become intensely inter- 
esting when we see it "pouring through those wild 
passes which, worn by mountain torrents and dark with 
jungle, lead down from the table-land of Mysore to 
the plains of the Carnatic.'^ A reference to the reputed 
learning of the English ladies of the sixteenth century 
is most cunningly put in the picture of "those fair 
pupils of Ascham and Aylmer who compared, over their 
embroidery, the styles of Isocrates and Lysias, and 
who, while the horns were sounding, and the dogs in 
full cry, sat in the lonely oriel, with eyes riveted to 
that immortal page which tells how meekly the first 
great martyr of intellectual liberty took the cup from 
his weeping gaoler." But when his eagerness for the 
concretely picturesque leads him to draw a wholly 
imaginary picture of how it may have come about that 
Addison had Steele arrested for debt, we are quite 
ready to protest. 



INTEODUCTION 25 

His tendency to exaggerate, moreover, and his love 

of paradox, belong in a very different category. Let 

the reader count the strong words, 
13. Exaggeration. ... . , ... 

superlatives, universal propositions, 

and the like, employed in a characteristic passage, and 
he will understand at once what is meant. In the 
essay on Frederic the Great we read: "Xo sovereign 
has ever taken possession of a throne by a clearer title. 
All the politics of the Austrian cabinet had, during 
twenty years, been directed to one single end — the set- 
tlement of the succession. From every person whose 
rights could be considered as injuriously affected, 
renunciations in the most solemn form had been ob- 
tained." And not content with the ordinary resources 
of language, he has a trick of raising superlatives them- 
selves, as it were, to the second or third power. "There 
can be little doubt that this great empire was, even in 
its best days, far worse governed than the worst gov- 
erned parts of Europe now are." "What the Italian is 
to the Englishman, what the Hindoo is to the Italian^ 
what the Bengalee is to other Hindoos, that was 
N'uncomar to other Bengalees." It is evident that this 
habit is a positive vice. He tried to excuse it on the 
ground that there is some inevitable loss in the commu- 
nication of a fact from one mind to another, and that 
over-statement is necessary to correct the error. But 
the argument is fallacious. Macaulay did not have a 
monopoly of the imaginative faculty; other men are as 
much given to exaggeration as he, and stories, as they 
pass from mouth to mouth, invariably "grow." 

His constant resort to antithesis to point his state- 



26 MACAULAY'S ESSAYS 

ments is another vice. "That government/^ he writes 
14. Antithesis and ^^ *^^ English rule in India, "op- 
Baiance. pressive as the most oppressive form 

of barbarian despotism, was strong with all the strength 
of civilization." Again: "The Puritan had affected 
formality; the comic poet laughed at decorum. The 
Puritan had frowned at innocent diversions ; the comic 
poet took under his patronage the most flagitious ex- 
cesses. The Puritan had canted; the comic poet blas- 
phemed." And so on, through a paragraph. Somewhat 
similar to this is his practice of presenting the contrary 
of a statement before presenting the statement itself, 
of telling us, for example, what might have been ex- 
pected to happen before telling us what actually did 
happen. It is to be noticed that, accompanying this 
use of antithesis and giving it added force, there is 
usually a balance of form, that is, a more or less exact 
correspondence of sentence structure. G-iven one of 
Macaulay^s sentences presenting the first part of an 
antithesis, it is sometimes possible to foretell, word for 
word, what the next sentence will be. Such mechanical 
writing is certainly not to be commended as a model of 
style. Of course it is the abuse of these things and 
not the mere use of them that constitutes Macaulay^s 
vice. 

There are still other formal devices which he uses 
so freely that we are justified in calling them man- 
nerisms. One of the most conspicuous* 
is the short sentence, the blunt, un- 
qualified statement of one thing at a time. No one 
who knows Macaulay would hesitate over the authorship 
of the following: "The shore was rocky; the night 



INTRODUCTION 37 

was black; the wind was furious; the waves of the 
Bay of Biscay ran high." The only wonder is that he 
did not punctuate it with four periods. He would 
apparently much rather repeat his subject and make a 
new sentence than connect his verbs. Instead of writ- 
ing, "He coaxed and wheedled," he is constantly 
tempted to write, "He coaxed, he wheedled," even though 
the practice involves prolonged reiteration of one form. 
This omission of connectives — "asyndeton" — may 
easily become a vice. The ands^ fhens, therefores, how- 
evers, the reader must supply for himself. This demands 
alertness and helps to sustain interest; and while it 
may occasion a momentary perplexity, it will rarely do 
so when the reader comes to know the style and to read 
it with the right swing. But it all goes to enforce what 
Mr. John Morley calls the "unlovely staccato" of the 
style. It strikes harsh on the ear and on the brain, and 
from a piquant stimulant becomes an intolerable weari- 
ness. Separate things get emphasis, but the nice 
gradation and relations are sacrificed. 

After all, though we stigmatize these things as 
^"^devices," intimating that they were mechanical and 

arbitrary, we must resrard them as 
16. Dogmatism. ,, ' , ^ i,r i ? 

partly temperamental. Macauiay s 

mind was not subtle in its working and was not given 
to making nice distinctions. He cared chiefly for bold 
outlines and broad effects. Truth, to his mind, was 
sharply defined from falsehood, right from wrong, good 
from evil. Everything could be divided from every- 
thing else, labelled, and pigeon-holed. And he was very 
certain, in the fields which he chose to enter, that he 
knew where to draw the dividing line. Positiveness, 



28 MACAULAY'S ESSAYS 

self-conficlence, are written ail over his work. Set for 
a moment against his metliod the metliod of Matthew 
Arnold. This is how Arnold tries to point out a defect 
in modern English society: "And, owing to the same 
causes, does not a subtle criticism lead us to make, 
even on the good looks and politeness of our aristo- 
cratic class, and even of the most fascinating half of 
that class, the feminine half, the one qualifying remark, 
that in these charming gifts there should perhaps be, 
for ideal perfection, a shade more soulf Note the 
careful approach, the constant, anxious qualification, 
working up to a climax in the almost painful hesitation 
of "a shade — more — soul." Imagine, if you can, 
Macaulay, the rough rider, he of the "stamxping em- 
phasis," winding into a truth like that. But indeed 
it is quite impossible to imagine Macaulay's having 
any truth at all to enunciate about so ethereal an 
attribute as this same soul. 

We have come well into the region of Macaulay's 
defects. Clearness, we have seen, he had in a remark- 

17. Ornament, able degree. Force he also had in a 
Rhythm. remarkable degree, though he fre- 

quently abused the means of displaying it. But genuine 
beauty, it is scarcely too much to say, he had not at all. 
Of course, much depends upon our definitions. We 
do not mean to deny to his writings all elements of 
charm. The very ease of his mastery over so many 
resources of composition gives pleasure to the reader. 
His frequent picturesqueness we have granted. He 
can be genuinely figurative, though his figures often 
incline to showiness. And above all he has a certain 
sense for rhythm. He can write long, sweeping sen- 



INTEODUCTION 29 

tences — periods that rise and descend with feeling, 
and that come to a stately or graceful close. The sen- 
tence cited above about the learning of women in the 
sixteenth century may be taken as an example. Or 
read the sketch of the Catholic Church in the third 
paragraph of the essay on Von Eanke's History of the 
Popes, or the conclusion of the essay on Lord Holland, 
or better still the conclusion of the somewhat juvenile 
essay on Mitford^s Greece, with its glowing tribute to 
Athens and its famous picture of the "single naked 
fisherman washing his nets in the river of the ten 
thousand masts." But at best it is the rhythm of mere 
declamation, swinging and pompous. There is no fine 
flowing movement, nothing like the entrancing glides 
of a waltz or the airy steps of a minuet, but only a 
steady march to the interminable and monotonous beat 
of the drum. For real music, sweetness, subtle and 
involved harmony, lingering cadences, we turn to any 
one of a score of prose writers — Sir Thomas Browne, 
Addison, Burke, Lamb, De Quincey, Hawthorne, .Kuskin, 
Pater, Stevenson — before we turn to Macaulay. ^N^or 
is there any other mere grace of composition in which 
he can be said to excel. 

There is no blame in the matter. We are only trying 
to note dispassionately the defects as well as the excel- 
18. Tempera- Icnces of a man who was not a uni- 
mentai Defects, versal genius. It would be easy to 
point out much greater defects than any yet mentioned, 
defects that go deeper than style. One or two indeed 
we are obliged to mention. There is the strain of 
coarseness often to be noted in his writing, showing 
itself now in an abusive epithet, now in a vulgar catch- 



30 MACAULAY'S ESSAYS 

word, now in a sally of humor bordering on the ribald. 
It is never grossly offensive, but it is none the less 
wounding to delicate sensibility. Then there is the 
Philistine attitude, which Mr. Arnold spent so much of 
his life in combating, the attitude of the complacent, 
self-satisfied Englishman, who sees in the British con- 
stitution and the organization of the British empire the 
best of all possible governments, and in the material 
and commercial progress of the age the best of all 
possible civilizations. And there is the persistent refusal 
to treat questions of really great moral significance 
upon any kind of moral basis. The absolute right or 
wrong of an act Macaulay will avoid discussing if he 
possibly can, and take refuge in questions of policy, 
of sheer profit and loss. We need not blame him 
severely on even these serious shortcomings. On the 
first point we remember that he was deliberately playing 
to his audience, consciously writing down to the level 
of his public. On the second we realize that he was a 
practical politician and that he never could have been 
such with the idealism of a Carlyle or a Ruskin. And 
on the third we remember that his own private life 
was one of affectionate sacrifice and his public life abso- 
lutely stainless. He could vote away his own income 
when moral conviction demanded it. Besides, even 
when he was only arguing, "policy" was always on the 
side of the right. What blame is left? Only this — 
that he should have pandered to any public, compromis- 
ing his future fame for an ephemeral applause, and 
that he should have so far wronged the mass of his 
readers as to suppose that arguments based upon policy 
would be more acceptable to them than arguments based 



INTEODUCTION 31 

upon sound moral princii3les. That he was something 
of a Philistine and not wholly a ''child of light/' may 
be placed to his discount but not to his discredit. The 
total indictment is small and is mentioned here only 
in the interests of impartial criticism. 

It remains only to sum up the literary significance 

of Macaulay's work. Nearly all of that work, we must 

19. Literary remember, lies outside of the field of 

Significance. what we know as "pure literature." 
Pure literature — poetry, drama, fiction — is a pure artistic 
or imaginative product with inspiration or entertainment 
as its chief aim. Though it may instruct incidentally, it 
does not merely inform. It is the work of creative 
genius. Macaulay's essays were meant to inform. Char- 
acters and situations are delineated in them, but not 
created. History and criticism are often not literature 
at all. They become literature only by revealing an 
imaginative insight and clothing themselves in artistic 
form. Macaulay's essays have done this; they engage 
the emotions as well as the intellect. They were meant 
for records, for storehouses of information; but they 
are also works of art, and therefore they live intact 
while the records of equally industrious but less gifted 
historians are revised and replaced. Thus by their 
artistic quality, their style, they are removed from the 
shelves of history to the shelves of literature. 

It becomes plain, perhaps, why at the outset we spoke 
of style. One hears little about Shakespeare's style, 
or Scott's, or Shelley's. Where there are matters of 
larger interest — character, dramatic situations, passion, 
\oity conceptions, abstract truth — there is little room 
for attention to so superficial a quality, or rather to a 



32 MACAULAY'S ESSAYS 

quality that has some such superficial aspects. But in 
the work of less creative writers, a purely literary 
interest, if it be aroused at all, must centre chiefly in 
this. And herein lies Macaulay's significance to the 
literary world to-day. 

Upon the professional writers of that world, as dis- 
tinct from the readers, his influence has been no less than 
20. Influence on profound, partly for evil, but chiefly, 
Journalism. ^,g ^j^i^k (Mr. Morley notwithstand- 
ing), for good. His name was mentioned at the 
beginning of our sketch in connection with journalism. 
It is just because the literary development of our age 
has moved so rapidly along this line, that Macaulay^s 
influence has been so far-reaching. The journalist 
must have an active pen. He cannot indulge in medi- 
tation while the ink dries. He cannot stop to arrange 
and rearrange his ideas, to study the cadence of his 
sentences, to seek for the unique or the suggestive word. 
What Macaulay did was to furnish the model of just 
such a style as would meet this need — ready, easy, 
rapid, yet never loose or obscure. He seems to have 
found his way by instinct to all those expedients which 
make writing easy — short, direct sentences, common- 
place words, constant repetition and balance of form, 
adapted quotations, and stock phrases from the Bible 
or Prayer-Book, or from the language of the professions, 
politics, and trade. This style he impressed upon a 
generation of journalists that was ready to receive it 
and keenly alive to its value. 

But the word "journalist" is scarcely broad enough to 
cover the class of writers here meant. For the class 
includes, in addition to the great "press tribe" from editor 



INTRODUCTION 33 

to reporter and reviewer, every writer of popular litera- 
ture, every one who appeals to a miscellaneous public, 
who undertakes to make himself a medium between 
special intelligence and general intelligence. And there 
are thousands of these wTiters to-day — in editorial 
chairs, on magazine staffs, on political, educational, and 
scientific commissions — who are consciously or uncon- 
sciously employing the convenient tinstrument which 
Macaulay did so much toward perfecting eighty 
years ago. The evidence is on every hand. One listens 
to a lecture by a scientist who, it is quite possible, never 
read a paragraph of Macaulay, and catches, before long, 
words like these: "There is no reversal of nature's 
processes. The world has come from a condition of 
things essentially different from the present. It is 
moving toward a condition of things essentially different 
from the present." Or one turns to an editorial in a daily 
paper and reads : "It will be ever thus with all the move- 
ments in this country to which a revolutionary inter- 
pretation can be attached. The mass and body of the 
people of the United States are a level-headed, sober- 
minded people. They are an upright and a solvent 
people. They love their government. They are proud 
of their government. Its credit is dear to them. En- 
listed in its cause, party lines sag loose upon the voters 
or disappear altogether from their contemplation." The 
ear-marks are very plain to see. 

We would not make the mistake of attributing too 
many and too large effects to a single cause. Life and 
art are very complex matters and the agencies at work 
are quite beyond our calculation. There is always dan- 
ger of exaggerating the importance of a single influence. 



34 MACAULAY'S ESSAYS 

The trend of things is not easily disturbed — the history 
of the world never yet turned upon the cast of a die or 
the length of a woman's nose. In spite of Jeffrey's 
testimony — and it cannot be lightly brushed aside — ^we 
are not ready to give Macaulay the whole credit for 
inventing this style. N'or do we believe that journalism 
would be materially different from what it is to-day, 
even though Macaulay had never written a line. But it 
does not seem too much to admit that the first vigorous 
impulse came from him and that the manner is 
deservedly associated with his name. 

In itself, as has been pointed out, it is not a beautiful 
thing. It is a thing of mannerisms, and some of these 
we have not hesitated to call vices. From the point of 
view of literature they are vices, blemishes on the face of 
true art. But the style is useful none the less. The ready 
writer is not concerned about beauty, he does not profess 
to be an artist. He has intelligence to convey, and the 
simplest and clearest medium is for his purpose the 
best. He will continue to use this serviceable medium 
nor trouble himself about its "unlovely staccato" and 
its gaudy tinsel. Meanwhile the literary artist may 
pursue his way in search of a more elusive music and a 
more iridescent beauty, satisfied with the tithe of 
Macaulay's popularity if only he can attain to some 
measure of his own ideals. 

But Macaulay himself should be remembered for his 
real greatness. The facile imitator of the tricks of his 

21. Real Great- pen should beware of the ingratitude 
ness. Qf assuming that these were the meas- 

ure of his mind. These vices are virtues in their place, 
but they are not high virtues, and they are not the 



INTEODUCTION 35 

virtues that made Macaulay great. His greatness lay 
in the qualities that we have tried to insist upon from 
the first, qualities that are quite beyond imitation, the 
power of bringing instantly into one mental focus the 
accumulations of a prodigious memory, and the range 
of vision, the grasp of detail, and the insight into men, 
measures, and events, that enabled him to reduce to 
beautiful order the chaos of human history. 



CHEONOLOGY AND BIBLIOGKAPHY 



1800. Macaul?y born, Oct. 25, at Eothley Temple, 

Leieestersliire. 
1818. Entered Trinity College, Cambridge. (B. A., 

1822; M. A., 1825.) 

1823. Began contributing to Knight's Quarterly Maga- 

zine. 

1824. Elected Fellow of Trinity. 

1825. Began contributing to Edinburgh Review. 

1826. Called to the Bar. 

1830. Entered Parliament. 

1831. Speeches on Eeforni Bill. 

183-4. AYent to India as member of the Supreme 
Council. 

1837. Indian Penal Code. 

1838. Eeturned to England. Tour in Italy. 

1839. Elected to Parliament for Edinburgh. Secretary 

at AYar. 

1842. Lays of Ancient Eome. 

1843. Collected edition of Essays. 

1848. History of England, vols. i. and ii. (Vols. iii. 

and iv. 1855; vol. v. 1861.) 
1852. Failure in health. 
1857. Made Baron Macaulay of Eothlej^ 
1859. Died Dec. 28. (Interred in Westminster Abbey.) 

37 



38 MACAULAY'S ESSAYS 

The standard edition of Macanlay's works is that 
edited by his sister, Lady Trevelyan, in eight volumes, 
and published at London, 1866 ; reprinted at New York, 
by Harper Bros. The authorized biography is that by 
his nephew, G. 0. Trevelyan, a book which is exceedingly 
interesting and which takes high rank among English 
biographies. J. Cotter Morison's life in the English 
Men of Letters series is briefer, is both biographical and 
critical, and is in ever}^ way an admirable work. There 
are also the articles in the Encyclopcedia Britannica, by 
Mark Pattison, and in the Dictionary of National 
Biography, by Sir Leslie Stephen. The best critical 
essays are those by Sir Leslie Stephen in Hours in a 
Library, by Mr. John Morley in Miscellwnies, and by 
Walter Bagehot in Literary Studies, 



LORD CLIVE 

{January 1840) 

The Life of Boiert Lord Clive'; collected from the Family 

Papers, communicated by the Earl of Powis. By Major- 

General Sir John Malcolm, K.C.B. P> vols. 8vo. Lon- 
don; 1836. 

We have always thought it strange that, while the 
history of the Spanish empire in America is familiarly 
known to all the nations of Europe, the great actions 
of our countrymen in the East should, even among our- 

5 selves, excite little interest. Every schoolboy knows who 
imprisoned Montezuma, and who strangled Atahualpa. 
But we doubt whether one in ten, even among English 
gentlemen of highly cultivated minds, can tell who won 
the battle of Buxar, who perpetrated the massacre of 

10 Patna, whether Sujah Dowlah ruled in Oude or in 
Travancore, or whether Holkar was a Hindoo or a Mus- 
sulman. Yet the victories of Cortes were gained over 
savages who had no letters, who were ignorant of the 
use of metals, who had not broken in a single animal 

15 to labour, who wielded no better weapons than those 
which could be made out of sticks, flints, and fish-bones, 
who regarded a horse-soldier as a monster, half man 
and half beast, who took a harquebusier for a sorcerer, 
able to scatter the thunder and lightning of the 

20 skies. The people of India, when we subdued them, 
were ten times as numerous as the Americans whom the 
Spaniards vanquished, and were at the same time quite 
as highly civilized as the victorious Spaniards. They had 



40 MACAULAY'S ESSAYS 

reared cities larger and fairer than Saragossa or Toledo, 
and buildings more beautiful and costly than the cathe- 
dral of Seville. They could show bankers richer than 
the richest firms of Barcelona or Cadiz, viceroys whose 
splendour far surpassed that of Ferdinand the Catholic, 5 
myriads of cavalry and long trains of artillery which 
would have astonished the Great Captain. It might 
have been expected, that every Englishman who takes 
any interest in any part of history would be curious to 
know how a handful of his countrymen, separated from lo 
their home by an immense ocean, subjugated, in the 
course of a few years, one of the greatest empires in the 
world. Yet, unless we greatly err, this subject is, to 
most readers, not only insipid, but positively distasteful. 

Perhaps the fault lies partly with the historians. 15 
Mr. MilFs book, though it has undoubtedly great and 
rare merit, is not sufficiently animated and picturesque 
to attract those who read for amusement. Orme, in- 
ferior to no English historian in style and power of 
painting, is minute even to tedi oneness. In one volume 20 
he allots, on an average, a closely printed quarto page 
to the events of every forty-eight hours. The conse- 
quence is, that his narrative, though one of the most 
authentic and one of the most finely written in our 
language, has never been very popular, and is now 25 
scarcely ever read. 

We fear that the volumes before us will not much 
attract those readers whom Orme and Mill have re- 
pelled. The materials placed at the disposal of Sir 
John Malcolm by the late Lord Powis were indeed of 30 
great value. But we cannot say that they have been 
very skilfully worked up. It would, however, be unjust 
to criticise with severity a work which, if the author 
had lived to complete and revise it, would probably 
have been improved by condensation and by a better 35 



LOED CLIVE 41 

arrangement. We are more disposed to perform the 
pleasing duty of expressing our gratitude to the noble 
family to which the public owes so much useful and 
curious information. 

5 The effect of the book, even when we make the largest 
allowance for the partiality of those who have fur- 
nished and of those who have digested the materials, 
is, on the whole, greatly to raise the character of Lord 
Clive. We are far indeed from sympathising with Sir 

10 John Malcolm, whose love passes the love of biogra- 
phers, and who can see nothing but wisdom and justice 
in the actions of his idol. But we are at least equall}^ 
far from concurring in the severe judgment of Mr. 
Mill, who seems to us to show less discrimination in 

15 his account of Clive than in any other part of his 
valuable work. Clive, like most men who are born 
with strong passions and tried by strong temptations, 
committed great faults. But every person who takes 
a fair and enlightened view of his whole career must 

20 admit that our island, so fertile in heroes and statesmen, 
has scarcely ever produced a man more truly great 
either in arms or in council. 

The Clives had been settled, ever since the twelfth 
century, on an estate of no great value, near Market- 

25 Drayton, in Shropshire. In the reign of George the 
First this moderate but ancient inheritance was pos- 
sessed by Mr. Eichard Clive, who seems to have been 
a plain man of no great tact or capacity. He had been 
bred to the law, and divided his time between profes- 

30 sional business and the avocations of a small pro- 
prietor. He married a lady from Manchester, of the 
name of Gaskill, and became the father of a very 
numerous family. His eldest son, Eobert, the founder 
of the British empire in India, was born at the old seat 



42 MACAULAY^S ESSAYS 

of his ancestors on the twenty-ninth of September, 
1725. 

Some lineaments of the character of the man were 
early discerned in the child. There remain letters 
written by his relations when he was in his seventh 5 
year; and from these letters it appears that, even at 
that early age, his strong will and his fiery passions, 
sustained by a constitutional intrepidity which some- 
times seemed hardly compatible with soundness of 
mind, had begun to cause great uneasiness to his fam- 10 
ily. "Fighting," says one of his uncles, "to which he 
is out of measure addicted, gives his temper such a 
fierceness and imperiousness, that he flies out on ever}^ 
trifling occasion." The old people of the neighbourhood 
still remember to have heard from their parents how 15 
Bob Clive climbed to the top of the lofty steeple of 
Market-Drayton, and with what terror the inhabitants 
saw him seated on a stone spout near the summit. 
They also relate how he formed all the idle lads of 
the town into a kind of predatory army, and compelled 20 
the shopkeepers to submit to a tribute of apples and 
half -pence, in consideration of which he guaranteed the 
security of their windows. He was sent from school 
to school, making very little progress in his learning, 
and gaining for himself everywhere the character of 25 
an exceedingly naughty boy. One of his masters, it 
is said, was sagacious enough to prophesy that the idle 
lad would make a great figure in the world. But the 
general opinion seems to have been that poor Eobert 
was a dunce, if not a reprobate. His family expected 30 
nothing good from such slender parts and such a 
headstrong temper. It is not strange therefore, that 
they gladly accepted for him, when he was in his 
eighteenth year, a writership in the service of the East 



LOED CLIVE 43 

India Company, and shipped him off to make a fortune 
or to die of a fever at Madras. 

Far different were the prospects of Clive from those 
of the youths whom the East India College now an- 

5 nually sends to the Presidencies of our Asiatic empire. 
The Company was then purely a trading corporation. 
Its territory consisted of a few square miles, for which 
rent was paid to the native governments. Its troops 
were scarcely numerous enough to man the batteries 

10 of three or four ill-constructed forts, which had been 
erected for the protection of the warehouses. The na- 
tives, who composed a considerable part of these little 
garrisons, had not yet been trained in the discipline 
of Europe, and were armed, some with swords and 

15 shields, some with bows and arrows. The business of 
the servant of the Company was not, as now, to conduct 
the judicial, financial, and diplomatic business of a 
great country, but to take stock, to make advances to 
weavers, to ship cargoes, and above all to keep an eye 

20 on private traders who dared to infringe the monopoly. 
The younger clerks were so miserably paid that they 
could scarcely subsist without incurring debt ; the elder 
enriched themselves by trading on their own account; 
and those who lived to rise to the top of the service 

25 often accumulated considerable fortunes. 

Madras, to which Clive had been appointed, was, at 
this time, perhaps, the first in importance of the Com- 
pany's settlements. In the preceding century Fort 
St. George had arisen on a barren spot beaten by a 

30 raging surf ; and in the neighbourhood of a town, inhab- 
ited by many thousands of natives, had sprung up, as 
towns spring up in the East, with the rapidity of the 
prophet's gourd. There were already in the suburbs 
many white villas, each surrounded by its garden, 

85 whither the wealthy agents of the Company retired, 



44 MACAULAY'S ESSAYS 

after the labours of the desk and the warehouse, to 
enjoy the cool breeze which springs up at sunset from 
the Bay of Bengal. The habits of these mercantile 
grandees appear to have been more profuse, luxurious, 
and ostentatious, than those of the high judicial and 5 
political functionaries who have succeeded them. But 
comfort was far less understood. Many devices which 
now mitigate the heat of the climate, preserve health, 
and prolong life, were unknown. There was far less 
intercourse with Europe than at present. The voyage lo 
by the Cape, which in our time has often been per- 
formed within three months, was then very seldom 
accomplished in six, and was sometimes protracted to 
more than a year. Consequently, the Anglo-Indian was 
then much more estranged from his country, much more 15 
addicted to Oriental usages, and much less fitted to 
mix in society after his return to Europe, than the 
Anglo-Indian of the present day. 

Within the fort and its precinct, the English exer- 
cised, by permission of the native government, an 20 
extensive authority, such as every great Indian land- 
owner exercised within his own domain. But they had 
never dreamed of claiming independent power. The 
surrounding country was ruled by the Nabob of the 
Carnatic, a deputy of the Viceroy of the Deccan, com- 25 
monly called the Nizam, who was himself only a deputy 
of the mighty prince designated by our ancestors as the 
Great Mogul. Those names, once so august and for- 
midable, still remain. There is still a Nabob of the 
Carnatic, who lives on a pension allowed to him by 30 
the English out of the revenues of the provinces which 
his ancestors ruled. There is still a Nizam, whose 
capital is overawed by a British cantonment, and to 
whom a British resident gives, under the name of 
advice, commands which are not to be disputed. There 35 



LORD CLIVE 45 

is still a Mogul, Avho is permitted to play at holding 
courts and receiving petitions, but who has less power 
to help or hurt than the youngest civil servant of the 
Company. 

5 dive's voyage was unusually tedious even for that 
age. The ship remained some months at the Brazils, 
where the young adventurer picked up some knowledge 
of Portuguese, and spent all his pocket-money. He 
did not arrive in India till more than a year after he 

10 had left England. His situation at Madras was most 
painful. His funds were exhausted. His pay was 
small. He had contracted debts. He was wretchedly 
lodged, no small calamity in a climate which can be 
made tolerable to an European only by spacious and 

15 well placed apartments. He had been furnished with 
letters of recommendation to a gentleman who might 
have assisted him; but when he landed at Fort St. 
George he found that this gentleman had sailed for 
England. The lad's shy and haughty disposition with- 

20 held him from introducing himself to strangers. He 
was several months in India before he became ac- 
quainted with a single family. The climate affected 
his health and spirits. His duties were of a kind ill- 
suited to his ardenc and daring character. He pined 

25 for his home, and in his letters to his relations ex- 
pressed his feelings in language softer and more pensive 
than we should have expected either from the wayward- 
ness of his boyhood, or from the inflexible sternness 
of his later years. "I have not enjoyed," says he, "one 

30 happy day since I left my native country" ; and again, 
"I must confess, at intervals, when I think of my dear 
native England, it affects me in a very peculiar man- 
ner. ... If I should be so far blest as to revisit again 
' my own country, but more especially Manchester, the 



46 MACAULAY'S ESSAYS 

centre of all my wishes, all that I could hope or desire ^ 
for would be presented before me in one view." 

One solace he found of the most respectable kind. 
The Governor possessed a good library, and permitted 
Clive to have access to it. The young man devoted 5 
much of his leisure to reading, and acquired at this 
time almost all the knowledge of books that he ever 
possessed. As a boy he had been too idle, as a man 
he soon became too busy, for literary pursuits. 

But neither climate nor poverty, neither study nor 10 
the sorrows of a home-sick exile, could tame the des- 
perate audacity of his spirit. He behaved to his official 
superiors as he had behaved to his schoolmasters, and 
he was several times in danger of losing his situation. 
Twice, while residing in the Writers' Buildings, he 15 
attempted to destroy himself ; and twice the pistol which 
he snapped at his own head failed to go off. This 
circumstance, it is said, affected him as a similar escape 
affected Wallenstein. After satisfying himself that the 
pistol was really well loaded, he burst forth into an 20 
exclamation that surely he was reserved for something 
great. 

About this time an event which at first seemed likely 
to destroy all his hopes in life suddenly opened before 
him a new path to eminence. Europe had been, during 25 
some years, distracted by the war of the Austrian suc- 
cession. George the Second was the steady ally of 
Maria Theresa. The house of Bourbon took the oppo- 
site side. Though England was even then the first 
of maritime powers, she was not, as she has since 30 
become, more than a match on the sea for all the nations 
of the world together; and she found it difficult to 
maintain a contest against the united navies of France 
and Spain. In the eastern seas France obtained the 
ascendency. Labourdonnais, governor of Mauritius, a 85 



LORD CLIVE 47 

man of eminent talents and virtues, conducted an expe- 
dition to the continent of India in spite of the oppo- 
sition of the British fle«t, landed, assembled an army, 
appeared before Madras, and compelled the town and 
5 fort to capitulate. The keys were delivered up ; the 
French colours were displayed on Fort St. George; and 
the contents of the Company's warehouse were seized 
as prize of war by the conquerors. It was stipulated 
by the capitulation that the English inhabitants should 

10 be prisoners of war on parole, and that the town should 
remain in the hands of the French till it should be 
ransomed. Labourdonnais pledged his honour that only 
a moderate ransom should be required. 

But the success of Labourdonnais had awakened the 

15 jealousy of his countryman, Dupleix, governor of 
Pondicherry. Dupleix, moreover, had already begun to 
revolve gigantic schemes, with which the restoration of 
Madras to the English was by no means compatible. 
He declared that Labourdonnais had gone beyond his 

20 powers ; that conquests made by the French arms on the 
continent of India were at the disposal of the governor 
of Pondicherry alone; and that Madras should be 
razed to the ground. Labourdonnais was compelled to 
yield. The anger which the breach of the capitulation 

25 excited among the English was increased by the ungen- 
erous manner in which Dupleix treated the principal 
servants of the Company. The Governor and several 
of the first gentlemen of Fort St. George were carried 
under a guard to Pondicherry, and conducted through 

30 the town in a triumphal procession under the eyes of 
fifty thousand spectators. It was with reason thought 
that this gross violation of public faith absolved the 
inhabitants of Madras from the engagements into which 
they had entered with Labourdonnais. Clive fled from 

35 the town by night in the disguise of a Mussulman, 



48 MAC AUL AY'S ESSAYS 

and took refuge at Fort St. David, one of the small 
English settlements subordinate to Madras. 

The circumstances in which he was now placed nat- 
urally led him to adopt a profession better suited to 
his restless and intrepid spirit than the business of 5 
examining packages and casting accounts. He solicited 
and obtained an ensign's commission in the service of 
the Company, and at twenty-one entered on his military 
career. His personal courage, of which he had, while 
still a writer, given signal proof by a desperate duel lo 
with a military bully who was the terror of Fort St. 
David, speedily made him conspicuous even among hun- 
dreds of brave men. He soon began to show in his 
new calling other qualities which had not before been 
discerned in him, judgment, sagacity, deference to i5 
legitimate authority. He distinguislied himself highly 
in several operations against the French, and was par- 
ticularly noticed by Major Lawrence, who was then 
considered as the ablest British officer in India. 

Clive had been only a few months in the army when 20 
intelligence arrived that peace had been concluded 
between Great Britain and France. Dupleix was in 
consequence compelled to restore Madras to the English 
Company; and the young ensign was at liberty to 
resume his former business. He did indeed return for 25 
a short time to his desk. He again quitted it in order 
to assist Major Lawrence in some petty hostilities with 
the natives, and then again returned to it. While he 
was thus wavering between a military and a commercial 
life, events took place which decided his choice. The 3ij 
politics of India assumed a new aspect. There was 
peace between the English and French Crowns; but 
there arose between the English and French Companies 
trading to the East a war most eventful and important, 



LOED CLIVE 49 

a war in which the prize was nothing less than the 
magnificent inheritance of the house of Tamerlane. 

The empire which Baber and his Moguls reared in 
the sixteenth century was long one of the most extensive 
5 and splendid in the world. In no European kingdom 
was so large a population subject to a single prince, 
or so large a revenue poured into the treasury. The 
beauty and magnificence of the buildings erected by the 
sovereigns of Hindostan amazed even travellers who had 

10 seen St. Peter's. The innumerable retinues and gor- 
geous decorations which surrounded the throne of Delhi 
dazzled even eyes which were accustomed to the pomp 
of Versailles. Some of the great viceroys who held 
their posts by virtue of commissions from the Mogul 

15 ruled as many subjects as the King of France or the 
Emperor of Germany. Even the deputies of these depu- 
ties might well rank, as to extent of territory and 
amount of revenue, with the Grand Duke of Tuscan}-, 
or the Elector of Saxony. 

20 There can be little doubt that this great empire, pow- 
erful and prosperous as it appears on a superficial 
view, was yet, even in its best days, far worse governed 
than the worst governed parts of Europe now are. The 
administration was tainted with all the vices of Oriental 

25 despotism, and with all the vices inseparable from the 
domination of race over race. The conflicting preten- 
sions of the princes of the royal house produced a long 
series of crimes and public disasters. Ambitious lieuten- 
ants of the sovereign sometimes aspired to independence. 

30 Fierce tribes of Hindoos, impatient of a foreign yoke, 
frequently withheld tribute, repelled the armies of the 
government from the mountain fastnesses, and poured 
down in arms on the cultivated plains. In spite, how- 
ever, of much constant maladministration, in spite of 

35 occasional convulsions which shook the whole frame of 



50 MACAULAY'S ESSAYS 

society, this great monarchy, on the whole, retained, 
during some generations, an outward appearance of 
unity, majesty, and energy. But, throughout the long 
reign of Aurungzebe, the state, notwithstanding all that 
the vigour and policy of the prince could effect, was 5 
hastening to dissolution. After his death, which took 
place in the year 1707, the ruin was fearfully rapid. 
Violent shocks from without co-operated with an in- 
curable decay which was fast proceeding within; 
and in a few years the empire had undergone utter lo 
decomposition. 

The history of the successors of Theodosius bears no 
small analogy to that of the successors of Aurungzebe. 
But perhaps the fall of the Carlovingians furnishes the 
nearest parallel to the fall of the Moguls. Charlemagne 15 
was scarcely interred when the imbecility and the dis- 
putes of his descendants began to bring contempt on 
themselves and destruction on their subjects. The wide 
dominion of the Franks was severed into a thousand 
pieces. N'othing more than a nominal dignity was left 20 
to the abject heirs of an illustrious name, Charles the 
Bald, and Charles the Fat, and Charles the Simple. 
Fierce invaders, differing from each other in race, lan- 
guage, and religion, flocked, as if by concert, from the 
farthest corners of the earth, to plunder provinces which 25 
the government could no longer defend. The pirates of 
the Northern Sea extended their ravages from the Elbe 
to the Pyrenees, and at length fixed their seat in the 
rich valley of the Seine. The Hungarian, in whom the 
trembling monks fancied that they recognised the Gog 30 
or Magog of prophecy, carried back the plunder of 
the cities of Lombardy to the depths of the Pannonian 
forests. The Saracen ruled in Sicily, desolated the 
fertile plains of Campania, and spread terror even to 
the walls of Eome. In the midst of these sufferings, a 35 



LOED CLIVE 51 

great internal change passed upon the empire. The 
corruption of death began to ferment into new forms 
of life. While the great body, as a whole, was torpid 
and passive, every separate member began to feel with 

5 a sense and to move with an energy all its own. Just 
here, in the most barren and dreary tract of European 
history, all feudal privileges, all modern nobility, take 
their source. It is to this point, that we trace the 
power of those princes who, nominally vassals, but really 

10 independent, long governed, with the titles of dukes^, 
marquesses, and counts, almost every part of the 
dominions which had obeyed Charlemagne. 

Such or nearly such was the change which passed 
on the Mogul empire during the forty years w^hich 

15 followed the death of Aurungzebe. A succession of 
nominal sovereigns, sunk in indolence and debauchery, 
sauntered away life in secluded palaces, chewing bang, 
fondling concubines, and listening to buffoons. A suc- 
cession of ferocious invaders descended through the 

20 western passes, to prey on the defenceless wealth of 
Hindostan. A Persian conqueror crossed the Indus, 
marched through the gates of Delhi, and bore away in 
triumph those treasures of which the magnificence had 
astounded Eoe and Bernier, the Peacock Throne, on 

25 which the richest jewels of Golconda had been disposed 
by the most skilful hands of Europe, and the ines- 
timable Mountain of Light, which, after many strange 
vicissitudes, lately shone in the bracelet of Runjeet Sing, 
and is now destined to adorn the hideous idol of Orissa. 

30 The Afghan soon followed to complete the work of the 
devastation which the Persian had begun. The war- 
like tribes of Eajpootana threw off the Mussulman yoke. 
A band of mercenary soldiers occupied Eohilcund. The 
Seiks ruled on the Indus. The Jauts spread dismay 

35 along the Jumna. The highlands which border on the 



52 MACAULAY'S ESSAYS 

western sea-coast of India poured forth a yet more for- 
midable race, a race which was long the terror of every 
native power, and which, after many desperate and 
doubtful struggles, yielded only to the fortune and 
genius of England. It was under the reign of 5 
Aurungzebe that this wild clan of plunderers first de- 
scended from their mountains ; and soon after his death, 
every corner of his wide empire learned to tremble 
at the mighty name of the Mahrattas. Many fertile 
viceroyalties were entirely subdued by them. Their lo 
dominions stretched across the peninsula from sea to 
sea. Mahratta captains reigned at Poonah, at Gualior, 
in Guzerat, in Berar, and in Tanjore. Nor did they, 
though they had become great sovereigns, therefore 
cease to be freebooters. They still retained the preda- 15 
tory habits of their forefathers. Every region which 
was not subject to their rule was wasted by their incur- 
sions. Wherever their kettle-drums were heard, the 
peasant threw his bag of rice on his shoulder, hid his 
small savings in his girdle, and fled with his wife and 20 
children to the mountains or the jungles, to the milder 
neighbourhood of the hyena and the tiger. Many 
provinces redeemed their harvests by the payment of 
an annual ransom. Even the wretched phantom who 
still bore the imperial title stooped to pay this igno- 25 
minious black-mail. The camp-fires of one rapacious 
leader were seen from the walls of the palace of Delhi. 
Another, at the head of his innumerable cavalry, 
descended year after year on the rice-fields of Bengal. 
Even the European factors trembled for their maga- 30 
zines. Less than a hundred years ago, it was thought 
necessary to fortify Calcutta against the horsemen of 
Berar, and the name of the Mahratta ditch still pre- • 
serves the memory of the danger. 

Wherever the viceroys of the Mogul retained authority 35 



LOED CUVE 53 

they became sovereigns. They might still acknowledge 
in words the superiority of the house of Tamerlane; 
as a Count of Flanders or a Duke of Burgundy might 
have acknowledged the superiority of the most helpless 

5 driveller among the later Carlovingians. They might 
occasionally send to their titular sovereign a compli- 
mentary present, or solicit from him a title of honour. 
In truth, however, they were no longer lieutenants 
removable at pleasure, but independent hereditary 

10 princes. In this way originated those great Mussulman 
houses which formerly ruled Bengal and the Carnatic, 
and those which still, though in a state of vassalage, 
exercise some of the powers of royalty at Lucknow and 
Hyderabad. 

15 In what was this confusion to end? Was the strife 
to continue during centuries? Was it to terminate in 
the rise of another great monarchy? Was the Mussul- 
man or the Mahratta to be the Lord of India? Was 
another Baber to descend from the mountains, and to 

20 lead the hardy tribes of Cabul and Chorasan against 
a wealthier and less warlike race ? None of these events 
seemed improbable. But scarcely any man, however 
sagacious, would have thought it possible that a trading 
company, separated from India by fifteen thousand 

25 miles of sea, and possessing in India only a few acres 
for purposes of commerce, would, in less than a hun- 
dred years, spread its empire from Cape Comorin to 
the eternal snow of the Himalayas; would compel 
Mahratta and Mahommedan to forget their mutual 

30 feuds in common subjection; would tame down even 
those wild races which had resisted the most powerful 
of the Moguls; and, having united under its laws a 
hundred millions of subjects, would carry its victorious 
arms far to the east of the Burrampooter, and far to 

35 the west of the Hydaspes, dictate terms of peace at the 



54 MACAULAY'S ESSAYS 

gates of Ava, and seat its vassal on the throne of 
Candahar. 

The man who first saw that it was possible to found 
an European empire on the ruins of the Mogul mon- 
archy was Dupleix. His restless, capacious, and in- 5 
ventive mind had formed this scheme, at a time when 
the ablest servants of the English Company were busied 
only about invoices and bills of lading. Nor had he 
only proposed to himself the end. He had also a just 
and distinct view of the means by which it was to be lo 
attained. He clearly saw that the greatest force which 
the princes of India could bring into the field would 
be no match for a small body of men trained in the 
discipline, and guided by the tactics, of the West. He 
saw also that the natives of India might, under 15 
European commanders, be formed into armies, such as 
Saxe or Frederic would be proud to command. He 
was perfectly aware that the most easy and convenient 
way in which an European adventurer could exercise 
sovereignty in India, was to govern the motions, and 20 
to speak through the mouth of some glittering puppet 
dignified by the title of Nabob or Nizam. The arts 
both of war and policy, which a few years later were 
employed with such signal success by the English, were 
first understood and practised by this ingenious and 25 
aspiring Frenchman. 

The situation of India was such that scarcely any 
aggression could be without a pretext, either in old 
laws or in recent practice. All rights were in a state 
of utter uncertainty ; and the Europeans who took part 30 
in the disputes of the natives confounded the confusion, 
by applying to Asiatic politics the public law of the 
West, and analogies drawn from the feudal system. If 
it was convenient to treat a Nabob as an independent 
prince, there was an excellent plea for doing so. He 35 



LOED CLIVE . 55 

was independent, in fact. If it was convenient to treat 
him as a mere deputy of the Court of Delhi, there was 
no difficulty; for he was so in theory. If it was con- 
venient to consider his office as an hereditary dignity, 
5 or as a dignity held during life only, or as a dignity 
held only during the good pleasure of the Mogul, argu- 
ments and precedents might be found for every one 
of those views. The party who had the heir of Baber 
in their hands, represented him as the undoubted, the 

10 legitimate, the absolute- sovereign, whom all subordinate 
authorities were bound to obey. The party against 
whom his name was used did not want plausible pre- 
texts for maintaining that the empire was in fact 
dissolved, and that, though it might be decent to treat 

15 the Mogul with respect, as a venerable relic of an order 
of things which had passed away, it was absurd to 
regard him as the real master of Hindostan. 

In the year 1748, died one of the most powerful of 
the new masters of India, the great ISTizam al Mulk, 

20 Viceroy of the Deccan. His authority descended to 
his son, Nazir Jung. Of the provinces subject to this 
high functionary, the Carnatic was the wealthiest and 
the most extensive. It was governed by an ancient 
N'abob, whose name the English corrupted into Anaverdy 

25 Khan. 

But there were pretenders to the government both 
of the viceroyalty and of the subordinate province. 
Mirzapha Jung, a grandson of Xizam al Mulk, ap- 
peared as the competitor of Xazir Jung. Chunda 

30 Sahib, son-in-law of a former N'abob of the Carnatic, 
disputed the title of Anaverdy Khan. In the unsettled 
state of Indian law it was easy for both Mirzapha Jung 
and Chunda Sahib to make out something like a claim 
of right. In a society altogether disorganized, they had 

35 no difficulty in finding greedy adventurers to follow 



56 MACAULAY'S ESSAYS 

their standards. They united their interests, invaded 
the Carnatic, and applied for assistance to the French, 
whose fame had been raised by their success against the 
English in a recent war on the coast of Coromandel. 

Nothing could have happened more pleasing to the 5 
subtle and ambitious Dupleix. To make a Nabob of 
the Carnatic, to make a Viceroy of the Deccan, to 
rule under their names the whole of Southern India; 
this was indeed an attractive prospect. He allied him- 
self with the pretenders, and sent four hundred French lo 
soldiers, and two thousand sepoys, disciplined after the 
European fashion, to the assistance of his confederates. 
A battle was fought. The French distinguished them- 
selves greatly. Anaverdy Khan was defeated and slain. 
His son, Mahommed Ali, who was afterwards well 15 
known in England as the Nabob of Arcot, and who 
owes to the eloquence of Burke a most unenviable im- 
mortality, fled with a scanty remnant of his army to 
Trichinopoly ; and the conquerors became at once 
masters of almost every part of the Carnatic. 20 

This was but the beginning of the greatness of 
Dupleix. After some months of fighting, negotiation 
and intrigue, his ability and good fortune seemed to 
have prevailed everywhere. Nazir Jung perished by 
the hands of his own followers ; Mirzapha Jung was 25 
master of the Deccan; and the triumph of French 
arms and French policy was complete. At Pondicherry 
all was exultation and festivity. Salutes were fired 
from the batteries, and Te Deum sung in the churches. 
The new Nizam came thither to visit his allies; and so 
the ceremony of his installation was performed there 
with great pomp. Dupleix, dressed in the garb worn 
by Mahommedans of the highest rank, entered the town 
in the same palanquin with the Nizam, and, in the 
pageant which followed, took precedence of all the court. 35 



LOED CLIVE 57 

He was declared Governor of India from the river 
Kristna to Cape Comorin, a country about as large as 
France, with authority superior even to that of Chunda 
Sahib. He was intrusted with the command of seven 

5 thousand cavalry. It was announced that no mint 
would be suffered to exist in the Carnatic except that 
at Pondicherry. A large portion of the treasures which 
former Viceroys of the Deccan had accumulated had 
foimd its way into the coffers of the French governor. 

10 It was rumoured that he had received two hundred 
thousand pounds sterling in money, besides many val- 
uable jewels. In fact, there could scarcely be any 
limit to his gains. He now ruled thirty millions of 
people with almost absolute power. Wo honour or 

15 emolument could be obtained from the government but 
by his intervention. Xo petition, unless signed by him, 
was perused by the Nizam. 

Mirzapha Jung survived his elevation only a few 
months. But another prince of the same house was 

20 raised to the throne by French influence, and ratified 
all the promises of his predecessor. Dupleix was now 
the greatest potentate in India. His countrymen 
boasted that his name was mentioned with awe even 
in the chambers of the palace of Delhi. The native 

25 population looked with amazement on the progress 
which, in the short space of four years, an European 
adventurer had made toward dominion in Asia. I^or 
was the vainglorious Frenchman content with the reality 
of power. He loved to display his greatness with arro- 

30 gairt ostentation before the eyes of his subjects and 
of his rivals. Near the spot where his policy had 
obtained its chief triumph, by the fall of Nazir Jung, 
and the elevation of Mirzapha, he determined to erect 
a column, on the four sides of which four pompous 

35 inscriptions, in four languages, should proclaim his 



5S MACArLAY'S ESSAYS 

glory to all the nations of the East. Medals stamped 
with emblems of his successes were buried beneath the 
foundations of his stately pillar, and round it arose a 
town bearing the haughty name of Dupleix Fatihabad, 
which is, being interpreted, the City of the Victory of 5 
Dupleix. 

The English had made some feeble and irresolute 
attempts to stop the rapid and brilliant career of the 
rival Company, and continued to recognise Mahommed 
Ali as Nabob of the Carnatic. But the dominions of lO 
Mahommed Ali consisted of Trichinopoly alone; and 
Trichinopoly was now invested by Chunda Sahib and 
his French auxiliaries. To raise the siege seemed im- 
possible. The small force which was then at Madras 
had no commander. Major Lawrence had returned 15 
to England; and not a single officer of established 
character remained in the settlement. The natives had 
learned to look with contempt on the mighty nation 
which was soon to conquer and to rule them. They 
had seen the French colours flying on Fort St. George ; 20 
they had seen the chiefs of the English factory led in 
triumph through the streets of Pondicherry; they had 
seen the arms and counsels of Dupleix everywhere suc- 
cessful, while the opposition which the authorities of 
Madras had made to his progress, had served only to 25 
expose their own weakness, and to heighten his glory. 
At this moment, the valour and genius of an obscure 
English youth suddenly turned the tide of fortune. 

Clive was now twenty-five years old. After hesitating 
for some time between a military and a commercial 30 
life, he had at length been placed in a post which par- 
took of both characters, that of commissary to the troops, 
with the rank of captain. The present emergency 
called forth all his powers. He represented to his 
superiors that unless some vigorous effort were made, 35 



LOED CIJVE 59 

Trichinopoly would fall, the house of Anaverdy Khan 
would perish, and the French would become the real 
masters of the whole peninsula of India. It was abso- 
lutely necessary to strike some daring blow. If an 
5 attack were made on Arcot, the capital of the Camatic, 
and the favourite residence of the N'abobs, it was not 
impossible that the siege of Trichinopoly would be 
raised. The heads of the English settlement, now 
thoroughly alarmed by the success of Dupleix, and 

10 apprehensive that, in the event of a new war between 
France and Great Britain, Madras would be instantly 

. taken and destroyed, approved of Clivers plan, and 
intrusted the execution of it to himself. The young 
captain was put at the head of two hundred English 

15 soldiers, and three hundred sepoys, armed and disci- 
plined after the European fashion. Of the eight officers 
who commanded this little force under him, only two 
had ever been in action, and four of the eight were 
factors of the Company, whom Clivers example had 

20 induced to offer their services. The weather was 
stormy; but Clive pushed on, through thunder, light- 
ning, and rain, to the gates of Arcot. The garrison, 
in a panic, evacuated the fort, and the English entered 
it without a blow. 

25 But Clive well knew that he should not be suffered 
to retain undisturbed possession of his conquest. He 
instantly began to collect provisions, to throw up works, 
and to make preparations for sustaining a siege. The 
garrison, which had fled at his approach, had now 

30 recovered from its dismay, and, having been swelled by 
large reinforcements from the neighbourhood to a force 
of three thousand men, encamped close to the town. At 
dead of night, Clive marched out of the fort, attacked 
the camp by surprise, slew great numbers, dispersed the 



60 MACAULAY'S ESSAYS 

rest, and returned to his quarters without having lost 
a single man. 

The intelligence of these events was soon carried to 
Chunda Sahib, who, with his French allies, was be- 
sieging Trichinopoly. He immediately detached four 5 
thousand men from his camp, and sent them to Arcot. 
They were speedily joined by the remains of the force 
which Clive had lately scattered. They were further 
strengthened by two thousand men from Vellore, and 
by a still more important reinforcement of a hundred M 
and fifty French soldiers whom Dupleix despatched 
from Pondicherry. The whole of his army, amounting 
to about ten thousand men, was under the command of 
Eajah Sahib, son of Chunda Sahib. 

Eajah Sahib proceeded to invest the fort of Arcot, 15 
which seemed quite incapable of sustaining a siege. The 
walls were ruinous, the ditches dry, the ramparts too 
narrow to admit the guns, the battlements too low to 
protect the soldiers. The little garrison had been 
greatly reduced by casualties. It now consisted of a 20 
hundred and twenty Europeans and two hundred sepoys. 
Only four officers were left; the stock of provisions 
was scanty; and the commander, who had to conduct 
the defence under circumstances so discouraging, was 
a young man of five-and-twenty, who had been bred a 25 
bookkeeper. 

During fifty days the siege went on. During fifty 
days the young captain maintained the defence, with a 
firmness, vigilance, and ability, which would have done 
honour to the oldest marshal in Europe. The breach, ^o 
however, increased day by day. The garrison began to 
feel the pressure of hunger. Under such circumstances, 
any troops so scantily provided with officers might have 
been expected to show signs of insubordination; and 
the danger was peculiarly great in a force composed 35 



LOKD CLIVE 61 

of men differing widely from each other in extraction, 
colour, language, manners, and religion. But the devo- 
tion of the little band to its chief surpassed anything 
that is related of the Tenth Legion of Caesar, or of the 

5 Old Guard of Xapoleon. The sepoys came to Clive, 
not to complain of their scanty fare, but to propose 
that all the grain should be given to the Europeans, 
who required more nourishment than the natives of 
Asia. The thin gruel, they said, which was strained 

10 away from the rice, would suffice for themselves. His- 
tory contains no more touching instance of military 
fidelity, or of the influence of a commanding mind. 

An attempt made by the government of Madras to 
relieve the place had failed. But there was hope from 

15 another quarter. A body of six thousand Mahrattas, 
half soldiers, half robbers, under the command of a 
chief named Morari Eow, had been hired to assist 
Mohammed Ali; but thinking the French power irre- 
sistible, and the triumph of Chunda Sahib certain, they 

20 had hitherto remained inactive on the frontiers of the 
Carnatic. The fame of the defence of Arcot roused 
them from their torpor. Morari Eow declared that he 
had never before believed that Englishmen could fight, 
but that he would willingly help them since he saw 

25 that they had spirit to help themselves. Eajah Sahib 
learned that the Mahrattas were in motion. It was 
necessary for him to be expeditious. He first tried 
negotiation. He offered large bribes to Clive, ^hich 
were rejected with scorn. He vowed that, if his pro- 
se posals were not accepted, he would instantly storm the 
fort, and put every man in.it to the sword. Clive told 
him in reply, with characteristic haughtiness, that his 
father was an usurper, that his army was a rabble, and 
that he would do well to think twice before he sent such 

35 poltroons into a breach defended by English soldiers. 



62 MACAULAY'S ESSAYS 

Eajah Saliib determined to storm the fort. The day 
was well suited to a bold military enterprise. It was 
the great Mahommedan festival which is sacred to the 
memory of Hosein, the son of Ali. The history of 
Islam contains nothing more touching than the event 5 
which gave rise to that solemnity. The mournful 
legend relates how the chief of the Fatimites, when 
all his brave followers had perished round him, drank 
his latest draught of water, and uttered his latest 
prayer, how the assassins carried his head in triumph, 10 
how the tyrant smote the lifeless lips with his staff, 
and how a few old men recollected with tears that they 
had seen those lips pressed to the lips of the Prophet 
of God. After the lapse of near twelve centuries, the 
recurrence of this solemn season excites the fiercest ai±d 15 
saddest emotions in the bosoms of the devout Moslem 
of India. They work themselves up to such agonies of 
rage and lamentation that some, it is said, have given 
up the ghost from the mere effect of mental excitement. 
They believe that, whoever, during this festival, falls in 20 
arms against the infidels, atones by his death for all 
the sins of his life, and passes at once to the garden 
of the Houris. It was at this time that Eajah Sahib 
determined to assault Arcot. Stimulating drugs were 
employed to aid the effect of religious zeal, and the 25 
besiegers, drunk with enthusiasm, drunk with bang, 
rushed furiously to the attack. 

Cliv^ had received secret intelligence of the design, 
had made his arrangements, and, exhausted by fatigue, 
had thrown himself on his bed. He was awakened by so 
the alarm, and was instantly at his post. The enemy 
advanced, driving before them elephants whose fore- 
heads were armed with iron plates. It was expected that 
the gates would yield to the shock of these living bat- 
tering-rams. But the huge beasts no sooner felt the 35 



LOED CLIVE 63 

English miTsket-balls tlian they turned round, and 
rushed furious!}^ away, trampling on the multitude 
which had urged them forward. A raft was launched 
on the water which filled one part of the ditch. Clive, 
5 perceiving that his gunners at that post did not under- 
stand their business, took the management of a piece 
of artillery himself, and cleared the raft in a few min- 
utes. When the moat w^as dry the assailants mounted 
with great boldness; but they w^ere received with a 

10 fire so heavy and so well directed, that it soon quelled 
the courage even of fanaticism and of intoxication. The 
rear ranks of the English kept the front ranks supplied 
with a constant succession of loaded muskets, and every 
shot told on the living mass below. After three des- 

15 perate onsets, the besiegers retired behind the ditch. 
The struggle lasted about an hour. Four hundred 
of the assailants fell. The garrison lost only five or 
six men. The besieged passed an anxious night, looking 

' for a renewal of the attack. But when the day broke, 

20 the enemy were no more to be seen. They had retired, 
leaving to the English several guns and a large quantity 
of ammunition. 

The news was received at Fort St. George with. 
transports of joy and pride. Clive was justly regarded 

25 as a man equal to any command. Tw^o hundred Eng- 
lish soldiers and seven hundred sepoys were sent to 
him, and with this force he instantly commenced of- 
fensive operations. He took the fort of Timery, effected 
a junction with a division of Morari Eow's army, and 

30 hastened, by forced marches, to attack Eajah Sahib, 
who was at the head of about five thousand men, of 
whom three hundred were French. The action was 
sharp; but Clive gained a complete victory. The mili- 
tary chest of Eajah Sahib fell into the hands of the 

35 conquerors. Six hundred sepoys, who had served in 



64 MACAULAY'S ESSAYS 

the enemy's army, came over to Clive's quarters, and 
were taken into the British service. Conjeveram sur- 
rendered without a blow. The governor- of Amee 
deserted Chunda Sahib, and recognised the title of 
Mahommed Ali. • 5 

Had the entire direction of the war been intrusted 
to Clive, it would probably have been brought to a 
speedy close. But the timidity and incapacity which 
appeared in all the movements of the English, except 
where he was personally present, protracted the strug- lo 
gle. The Mahrattas muttered that his soldiers were of 
a different race from the British whom they found else- 
where. The effect of this languor was that in no long 
time Eajah Sahib, at the head of a considerable army, 
in which were four hundred French troops, appeared 15 
almost under the guns of Fort St. George, and laid 
waste the villas and gardens of the gentlemen of the 
English settlement. But he was again encountered and 
defeated by Clive. More than a hundred of the French 
were killed or taken, a loss more serious than that of 20 
thousands of natives. The victorious army marched 
from the field of battle to Fort St. David. On the 
road lay the City of the Victory of Dupleix, and the 
stately monument which was designed to commemorate 
the triumphs of France in the East. Clive ordered 25 
both the city and the monument to be razed to the 
ground. He was induced, we believe, to take this step, 
not by personal or national malevolence, but by a just 
and profound policy. The town and its pompous name, 
the pillar and its vaunting inscriptions, were among 30 
the devices by which Dupleix had laid the public mind 
of India under a spell. This spell it was Clive's busi- 
ness to break. The natives had been taught that France 
was confessedly the first power in Europe, and that the 
English did not presume to dispute her supremacy. 'No 35 



LOED CLIVE 65 

measure could be more effectual for the removing of 
this delusion than the public and solemn demolition of 
the French trophies. 

The government of Madras, encouraged by these 

5 events, determined to send a strong detachment, under 
Clive, to reinforce the garrison of Trichinopoly. But 
just at this conjuncture, Major Lawrence arrived from 
England, and assumed the chief command. From the 
waywardness and impatience of control which had char- 

10 acterised Clive, both at school and in the counting-house, 
it might have been expected that he would not, after 
such achievements, act with zeal and good humour in 
a subordinate capacity. But Lawrence had early 
treated him with kindness; and it is bare justice to 

15 Clive to say that, proud and overbearing as he was, 
• kindness was never thrown away upon him. He cheer- 
fully placed himself under the orders of his old friend, 
and exerted himself as strenuously in the second post 
as he could have done in the first. Lawrence well knew 

20 the value of such assistance. Though himself gifted 
with no intellectual faculty higher than plain good 
sense, he fully appreciated the powers of his brilliant 
coadjutor. Though he had made a methodical study of 
military tactics, and, like all men regularly bred to a 

25 profession, was disposed to look with disdain on inter- 
lopers, he had yet liberality enough to acknowledge that 
Clive was an exception to common rules. "Some peo- 
ple,^^ he wrote, "are pleased to term Captain Clive 
fortunate and lucky; but, in my opinion, from the 

30 knowledge I have of the gentleman, he deserved and 
might expect from his conduct everj^thing as it fell 
out; — a man of an undaunted resolution, of a cool 
temper, and of a presence of mind which never left 
him in the greatest danger — ^born a soldier ; for, without 

35 a military education of any sort, or much conversing 



66 MACAULAY'S ESSAYS 

with any of tlie profession, from his judgment and 
good sense, he led on an army like an experienced officer 
and a brave soldier, with a prudence that certainly 
warranted success/^ 

The French had no commander to oppose to the two 5 
friends. Dupleix, not inferior in talents for negotia- 
tion and intrigue to any European who has borne a 
part in the revolutions of India, was ill qualified to 
direct in person military operations. He had not been 
bred a soldier, and had no inclination to become one. lo 
His enemies accused him of personal cowardice; and 
he defended himself in a strain worthy of Captain 
Bobadil. He kept away from shot, he said, because 
silence and tranquillity were propitious to his genius, 
and he found it difficult to pursue his meditations 15 
amidst the noise of fire-arms. He was thus under the 
necessity of intrusting to others the execution of his 
great warlike designs; and he bitterly complained that 
he was ill served. He had indeed been assisted by 
one officer of eminent merit, the celebrated Bussy. 20 
But Bussy had marched northward with the Nizam, and 
was fully employed in looking after his own interests, 
and those of France, at the court of that prince. Among 
the officers who remained with Dupleix, there was not 
a single man of capacity; and many of them were 25 
boys, at whose ignorance and folly the common soldiers 
laughed. 

The English triumphed everywhere. The besiegers of 
Trichinopoly were themselves besieged and compelled 
to capitulate. Chunda Sahib fell into the hands of 30 
the Mahrattas, and was put to death, at the instigation 
probably of his competitor, Mahommed Ali. The spirit 
of Dupleix, however, was unconquerable, and his re- 
sources inexhaustible. From his employers in Europe 
he no longer received help or countenance. They con- 35 



LOED CLIVE 6T 

demned his polic}^ Tliey gave him no pecuniary assist- 
ance. They sent him for troops only the sweepings of 
the galleys. Yet still he persisted, intrigued, bribed, 
promised, lavished his private fortune, strained hi& 
5 credit, procured new diplomas from Delhi, raised up 
new enemies to the government of Madras on every 
side, and found tools even among the allies of the 
English Company. But all was in vain. Slowly, but 
steadily, the power of Britain continued to increase, 

10 and that of France to decline. 

The health of Clive had never been good during his 
residence in India; and his constitution was now so 
much impaired that he determined to return to England, 
Before his departure he undertook a service of consid- 

15 erable difficulty, and performed it with his usual vigour 
and dexterity. The forts of Covelong and Chingleput 
were occupied by French garrisons. It was determined 
to send a force against them. But the only force 
available for this purpose was of such a description 

2J that no officer but Clive would risk his reputation by 
commanding it. It consisted of five hundred newly 
levied sepoys and two hundred recruits who had just 
landed from England, and who were the worst and 
lowest wretches that the Companj^^s crimps could pick 

25 up in the flash-houses of London. Clive, ill and 
exhausted as he was, undertook to make an army of 
this undisciplined rabble, and marched with them to 
Covelong. A shot from the fort killed one of these 
extraordinary soldiers; on which all the rest faced 

30 about and ran away, and it was with the greatest dif- 
ficulty that Clive rallied them. On another occasion, 
the noise of a gun terrified the sentinels so much that 
one of them was found, some hours later, at the bottom 
of a well. Clive gradually accustomed them to danger, 

35 and, by exposing himself constantly in the most perilous 



,68 MACAULAY'S ESSAYS 

situations, shamed them into courage. He at length suc- 
ceeded in forming a respectable force out of his unprom- 
ising materials. Covelong fell. Clive learned that a 
strong detachment was marching to relieve it from 
Chingleput. He took measures to prevent the enemy 5 
from learning that they were too late, laid an ambuscade 
for them on the road, killed a hundred of them with 
one fire, took three hundred prisoners, pursued the 
fugitives to the gates of Chingleput, laid siege instantly 
to that fastness, reputed one of the strongest in India, lo 
made a breach, and was on the point of storming, when 
the French commandant capitulated and retired with 
his men. 

Clive returned to Madras victorious, but in a state of 
health which rendered it impossible for him to remain 15 
there long. He married at this time a young lady of 
the name of Maskelyne, sister of the eminent mathe- 
matician, who long held the post of Astronomer Royal. 
She is described as handsome and accomplished; and 
her husband's letters, it is said, contain proofs that he 20 
was devotedly attached to her. 

Almost immediately after the marriage, Clive em- 
barked with his bride for England. He returned a 
very different person from the poor slighted boy who 
had been sent out ten years before to seek his fortune. 25 
He was only twenty-seven; yet his country already re- 
spected him as one of her first soldiers. There was then 
general peace in Europe. The Carnatic was the only part 
of the world where the English and French were in 
arms against each other. The vast schemes of Dupleix 
had excited no small uneasiness in the city of London; 
and the rapid turn of fortune, which was chiefly owing 
to the courage and talents of Clive, had been hailed 
with delight. The young captain was known at the 
India House by the honourable nickname of General 
Clive, and was toasted by that appellation at the feasts ^^ 



LOED CLIVE .69 

of the Directors. On his arrival in England, he found 
himself an object of general interest and admiration. 
The East India Company thanked him for his services 
in the warmest terms, and bestowed on him a sword set 
5 with diamonds. With rare delicacy, he refused to re- 
ceive this token of gratitude, unless a similar compli- 
ment was paid to his friend and commander, Lawrence. 
It may easily be supposed that Clive was most 
cordially welcomed home by his family, who were de- 

10 lighted by his success, though they seem to have been 
hardly able to comprehend how their naughty idle 
Bobby had become so great a man. His father had 
been singularly hard of belief, ^ot until the news of 
the defence of Arcot arrived in England was the old 

15 gentleman heard to growl out that, after all, the booby 
had something in him. His expressions of approbation 
became stronger and stronger as news arrived of one 
brilliant exploit after another; and he was at length 
immoderately fond and proud of his son. 

20 dive's relations had very substantial reasons for 
rejoicing at his return. Considerable sums of prize 
money had fallen to his share; and he had brought 
home a moderate fortune, part of which he expended 
in extricating his father from pecuniary difficulties, 

25 and in redeeming the family estate. The remainder 
he appears to have dissipated in the course of about 
two years. He lived splendidly, dressed gaily even for 
those times, kept a carriage and saddle-horses, and, 
not content with these ways of getting rid of his 

30 money, resorted to the most speedy and effectual of all 
modes of evacuation, a contested election followed by 
a petition. 

At the time of the general election of 1754, the 
Government was in a very singular state. There was 

35 scarcely any formal opposition. The Jacobites had been 



70 MACAULAY'S ESSAYS 

cowed by the issue of the last rebellion. The Tory 
party had fallen into ntter contempt. It had been 
deserted by all the men of talents who had belonged to 
it, and had scarcely given a symptom of life during 
some years. The small faction which had been held 5 
together by the influence and promises of Prince Fred- 
eric, had been dispersed by his death. Almost every 
public man of distinguished talents in the kingdom, 
whatever his early connections might have been, was 
in office, and called himself a Whig. But this extra- lo 
ordinary appearance of concord was quite delusive. The 
administration itself was distracted by bitter enmities 
and conflicting pretensions. The chief object of its 
members was to depress and supplant each other. The 
Prime Minister, Newcastle, weak, timid, jealous, and 15 
perfidious, was at once detested and despised by sorne 
of the most important members of his Government, 
and by none more than by Henry Fox, the Secretary- 
at-War. This able, daring, and ambitious man seized 
every opportunity of crossing the First Lord of the 20 
Treasury, from whom he well knew that he had little 
to dread and little to hope; for Newcastle was through 
life equally afraid of breaking with men of parts and 
of promoting them. 

Newcastle had set his heart on returning two mem- 25 
bers for St. Michael, one of those wretched Cornish 
boroughs which were swept away by the Eeform Act 
of 1832. He was opposed by Lord Sandwich, whose 
influence had long been paramount there: and Fox 
exerted himself strenuously in Sandwiches behalf. 30 
Clive, who had been introduced to Fox, and very kindly 
received by him, was brought forward on the Sandwich 
interest, and was returned. But a petition was pre- 
sented against the return, and was backed by the whole 
influence of the Duke of Newcastle. 35 



LOED CLIVE 71 

The case was heard, according to the usage of that 
time, before a committee of the whole House. Ques- 
tions respecting elections were then considered merely 
as party questions. Judicial impartiality was not even 

5 affected. Sir Eobert Walpole was in the habit of saying 
openly that, in election battles, there ought to be no 
quarter. On the present occasion the excitement was 
great. The matter really at issue was, not whether 
Clive had been properly or improperly returned, but 

10 whether Newcastle or Fox was to be master of the new 
House of Commons, and consequently first minister. 
The contest was long and obstinate, and success seemed 
to lean sometimes to one side and sometimes to the 
other. Fox put forth all his rare powers of debate, 

15 beat half the lawyers in the House at their own 
weapons, and carried division after division against the 
whole influence of the T^reasury. The committee de- 
cided in Olive's favour. But when the resolution was 
reported to the House, things took a different course. 

20 The remnant of the Tory Opposition, contemptible as 
it was, had yet sufficient weight to turn the scale 
between the nicely balanced parties of N"ewcastle and 
Fox. Newcastle the Tories could only despise. Fox 
they hated, as the boldest and most subtle politician 

25 and the ablest debater among the Whigs, as the steady 
friend of Walpole, as the devoted adherent of the Duke 
of Cumberland. After wavering till the last moment, 
they determined to vote in a body with the Prime 
Minister's friends. The consequence was that the 

30 House, by a small majority, rescinded the decision of 
the committee, and Clive was unseated. 

Ejected from Parliament, and straitened in his 
means, he naturally began to look again towards India. 
The Company and the Government were eager to avail 

35 themselves of his services. A treaty favourable to Eng- 



72 MACAULAY'S ESSAYS 

land had indeed been concluded in the Carnatic. 
Dupleix had been superseded, and had returned with 
the wreck of his immense fortune to Europe, where 
calumny and chicanery soon hunted him to his grave. 
But many signs indicated that a war between France 5 
and Great Britain was at hand; and it was therefore 
thought desirable to send an able commander to the 
Companj^^s settlements in India. The Directors ap- 
pointed Clive governor of Fort St. David. The King 
gave him the commission of a lieutenant-colonel in the lo 
British army, and in 1755 he again sailed for Asia. 

The first service on which he was employed after 
his return to the East was the reduction of the strong- 
hold of Gheriah. This fortress built on a craggy 
promontory, and almost surrounded by the ocean, was 15 
the den of a pirate named Angria, whose barks had 
long been the terror of the Arabian Gulf. Admiral 
Watson, who commanded the English squadron in the 
Eastern seas, burned Angria^s fleet, while Clive attacked 
the fastness by land. The place soon fell, and booty 20 
of a hundred and fifty thousand pounds sterling was 
divided among the conquerors. 

After this exploit, Clive proceeded to his govern- 
ment of Fort St. David. Before he had been there two 
months, he received intelligence which called forth all 25 
the energy of his bold and active mind. 

Of the provinces which had been subject to the house 
of Tamerlane, the wealthiest was Bengal. No part of 
India possessed such natural advantages both for agri- 
culture and for commerce. The Ganges, rushing 30 
through a hundred channels to the sea, has formed a 
vast plain of rich mould which, even under the tropical 
sk}^, rivals the verdure of an English April. The rice- 
fields yield an increase such as is elsewhere unknown. 
Spices, sugar, vegetable oils, are produced with marvel- 35 



LOKD CLIVE 73 

lous exuberance. The rivers afford an inexhaustible 
supply of fish. The desolate islands along the sea- 
coast, overgrown by noxious vegetation, and swarming 
with deer and tigers, supply the cultivated districts 

5 with abundance of salt. The great stream which 
fertilises the soil is, at the same time, the chief highway 
of Eastern commerce. On its banks, and on those of 
its tributary waters, are the wealthiest marts, the most 
splendid capitals, and the most sacred shrines of India. 

10 The tyranny of man had for ages struggled in vain 
against the overflowing bounty of nature. In spite of 
the Mussulman despot and of the ]\Iahratta freebooter, 
Bengal was known through the East as the garden of 
Eden, as the rich kingdom. Its population multiplied 

15 exceeding^. Distant provinces were nourished from 
the overflowing of its granaries; and the noble ladies 
of London and Paris were clothed in the delicate 
produce of its looms. The race by whom this rich tract 
was peopled, enervated by a soft climate and accus- 

20 tomed to peaceful employments, bore the same relation 
to other Asiatics which the Asiatics generally bear to 
the bold, energetic children of Europe. The Castilians 
have a proverb, that in Valencia the earth is water and 
the men women ; and the description is at least equally 

25 applicable to the vast plain of the Lower Ganges. 
Whatever the Bengalee does he does languidly. His 
favourite pursuits are sedentary. He shrinks from bod- 
ily exertion; and, though voluble in dispute, and 
singularly pertinacious in the war of chicane, he 

30 seldom engages in a personal conflict, and scarcely ever 
enlists as a soldier. We doubt whether there be a hun- 
dred genuine Bengalees in the whole army of the East 
India Company. There never, perhaps, existed a people 
so thoroughly fitted by nature and by habit for a 

35 foreign yoke. 



74 MACAULAY'S ESSAYS 

The great commercial companies of Europe had long 
possessed factories in Bengal. The French were set- 
tled, as they still are, at Chandernagore on the Hoogley. 
Higher up the stream the Dutch held Chinsurah. 
Nearer to the sea, the English had built Fort William. 5 
A church and ample warehouses rose in the vicinity. A 
row of spacious houses, belonging to the chief factors 
of the East India Company, lined the banks of the 
river; and in the neighbourhood had sprung up a large 
and busy native town, where some Hindoo merchants lo 
of great opulence had fixed their abode. But the tract 
now covered by the palaces of Chowringhee contained 
only a few miserable huts thatched with straw. A 
jungle, abandoned to water-fowl and alligators, covered 
the site of the present Citadel, and the Course, which 15 
is now daily crowded at sunset with the gayest equipages 
of Calcutta. For the ground on which the settlement 
.stood, the English, like other great landholders, paid 
rent to the Government; and they were, like other 
landholders, permitted to exercise a certain jurisdiction 20 
within their domain. 

The great province of Bengal, together with Orissa 
and Bahar, had long been governed by a viceroy, whom 
ihe English called Aliverdy Khan, and who, like the 
other viceroys of the Mogul, had become virtually 25 
independent. He died in 1756, and the sovereignty 
descended to his grandson, a youth under twenty years 
of age, who bore the name of Sura j ah Dowlah. Oriental 
despots are perhaps the worst class of human beings; 
and this unhappy boy was one of the worst specimens 30 
of his class. His understanding was naturally feeble, 
and his temper naturally unamiable. His education had 
been such as would have enervated even a vigorous 
intellect, and perverted even a generous disposition. 
He was unreasonable, because nobody ever dared to 35 



LOED CLTVE 75 

reason with him, and selfish, because he had never been 
made to feel himself dependent on the goodwill of 
others. Early debauchery had unnerved his body and 
his mind. He indulged immoderately in the use of 
5 ardent spirits, which inflamed his weak brain almost to 
madness. His chosen companions were flatterers sprung 
from the dregs of the people, and recommended by noth- 
ing but buffoonery and servility. It is said that he had 
arrived at the last stage of human depravity, when 

10 cruelty becomes pleasing for its own sake, when the 
sight of pain as pain, where no advantage is to be 
gained, no offence punished, no danger averted, is an 
agreeable excitement. It had early been his amusement 
to torture beasts and birds; and, when he grew up, he 

15 enjoyed with still keener relish the misery of his 
fellow-creatures. 

From a child Sura j ah Dowlah had hated the English. 
It was his whim to do so; and his whims were never 
opposed. He had also formed a very exaggerated 

20 notion of the wealth which might be obtained by plun- 
dering them ; and his feeble and uncultivated mind was 
incapable of perceiving that the riches of Calcutta, had 
they been even greater than he imagined, would not 
compensate him for what he must lose, if the European 

25 trade, of which Bengal was a chief seat, should be 
driven by his violence to some other quarter. Pretexts 
for a quarrel were readily found. The English, in 
expectation of a war with France, had begun to fortify 
their settlement without special permission from the 

30 Nabob. A rich native, whom he longed to plunder, 
had taken refuge at Calcutta, and had not been delivered 
up. On such grounds as these Sura j ah Dowlah marched 
with a great army against Fort William. 

The servants of the Company at Madras had been 

35 forced by Dupleix to become statesmen and soldiers. 



76 MACAULAY'S ESSAYS 

Those in Bengal were still mere traders, and were ter- 
rified and bewildered by the approaching danger. The 
governor, who had heard much of Surajah Dowlah^s 
cruelty, was frightened out of his wits, jumped into a 
boat, and took refuge in the nearest ship. The military 5 
commandant thought that he could not do better than 
follow so good an example. The fort was taken after 
a feeble resistance; and great numbers of the English 
fell into the hands of the conquerors. The Nabob 
seated himself with regal pomp in the principal hall lo 
of the factory, and ordered Mr. Holwell, the first in 
rank among the prisoners, to be brought before him. 
His Highness talked about the insolence of the English, 
and grumbled at the smallness of the treasure which he 
had found, but promised to spare their lives, and retired 15 
to rest. 

Then was committed that great crime, memorable for 
its singular atrocity, memorable for the tremendous 
retribution by which it was followed. The English 
captives were left to the mercy of the guards, and the 20 
guards determined to secure them for the night in the 
prison of the garrison, a chamber known by the fearful 
name of the Black Hole. Even for a single European 
malefactor, that dungeon would, in such a climate, have 
been too close and narrow. The space was only twenty 25 
feet square. The air-holes were small and obstructed. 
It was the summer solstice, the season when the fierce 
heat of Bengal can scarcely be rendered tolerable to 
natives of England by lofty halls and by the constant 
waving of fans. The number of the prisoners was one 30 
hundred and forty-six. When they were ordered to 
enter the cell, they imagined that the soldiers were 
joking; and, being in high spirits on account of the 
promise of the Nabob to spare their lives, they laughed 
and jested at the absurdity of the notion. They soon 35 



LOED CLIVE 77 

discovered their mistake. Tliey expostulated; they 
entreated; but in vain. The guards threatened to cut 
down all who hesitated. The captives were driven into 
the cell at the point of the sword, and the door was 
5 instantly shut and locked upon them. 

K"othing in history or fiction, not even the story 
which TJgolino told in the sea of everlasting ice, after 
he had wiped his bloody lips on the scalp of his mur- 
derer, approaches the horrors which were recounted by 

10 the few survivors of that night. They cried for mercy. 
They strove to burst the door. Holwell who, even in 
that extremity, retained some presence of mind, offered 
large bribes to the gaolers. But the answer was that 
nothing could be done without the N'abob's orders, that 

15 the Xabob was asleep, and that he would be angry if 
anybody woke him. Then the prisoners went mad with 
despair. They trampled each other down, fought for 
the places at the windows, fough't for the pittance of 
water with which the cruel mercy of the murderers 

20 mocked their agonies, raved, prayed, blasphemed, im- 
plored the guards to fire among them. The gaolers in 
the meantime held lights to the bars, and shouted with 
laughter at the frantic struggles of their victims. At 
length the tumult died away in low gaspings and moan- 

25 ings. The day broke. The Nabob had slept off his 
debauch, and permitted the door to be opened. But 
it was some time before the soldiers could make a lane 
for the survivors, by piling up on each side the heaps 
of corpses on which the burning climate had already 

30 begun to do its loathsome work. When at length a 
passage was made, twenty-three ghastly figures, such 
as their own mothers would not have known, staggered 
one by one out of the charnel-house. A pit was 
instantly dug. The dead bodies, a hundred and twenty- 



78 MACAULAY'S ESSAYS 

three in number, were flung into it promiscnoush^ and | 
covered up. | 

But these things — which, after tlie lapse of more 
than eighty years, cannot be told or read without horror 
— awakened neither remorse nor pity in the bosom of 5 
the savage Nabob. He inflicted no punishment on the 
murderers. He showed no tenderness to the survivors. 
Some of them, indeed, from whom nothing was to be 
got, were suffered to depart; but those from whom it 
was thought that anything could be extorted were le 
'treated with execrable cruelty. Holwell, unable to 
walk, was carried before the tyrant, who reproached 
him, threatened him, and sent him up the country in 
irons, together with some other gentlemen who were 
suspected of knowing more than they chose to tell about 15 
the treasures of the Company. These persons, still 
bowed down by the sufferings of that great agony, 
were lodged in miserable sheds, and fed only with grain | 
and water, till at length the intercessions of the female < 
relations of the N'abob procured their release. One 20 
Englishwoman had survived that night. She was 
placed in the harem of the Prince at Moorshedabad. 

Sura j ah Dowlah, in the meantime, sent letters to his 
nominal sovereign at Delhi, describing the late con- 
quest in the most pompous language. He placed a 23 
garrison in Fort William, forbade Englishmen to dwell 
in the neighbourhood, and directed that, in memory of 
his great actions, Calcutta should thenceforward be i 
called Alinagore, that is to say, the Port of God. 

In August the news of the fall of Calcutta reached 30 
Madras, and excited the fiercest and bitterest resent- i 
ment. The cry of the whole settlement was for ven- ^ 
geance. Within forty-eight hours after the arrival of 
the intelligence it was determined that an expedition 
should be sent to the Hoogiey, and that Clive should 35 



LOED CLIVE 7^ 

be at the head of the land forces. The naval armament 
was under the command of Admiral Watson. Nine 
hundred English infantry, fine troops and full of spirit^ 
and fifteen hundred sepoys, composed the army which 

5 sailed to punish a Prince who had more subjects than 
Louis the Fifteenth or the Empress Maria Theresa. la 
October the expedition sailed; but it had to make its 
way against adverse winds and did not reach Bengal 
till December. 

10 The Nabob was revelling in fancied security at Moor- 
shedabad. He was so profoundly ignorant of the state 
of foreign countries that he often used to say that there 
were not ten thousand men in all Europe; and it had 
never occurred to him as possible that the English 

15 would dare to invade his dominions. But, though 
undisturbed by any fear of their military power, he 
began to miss them greatly. His revenues fell off; and 
his ministers succeeded in making him understand that 
a ruler may sometimes find it more profitable to protect 

20 traders in the open enjoyment of their gains than to 
put them to the torture for the purpose of discovering 
hidden chests of gold and jewels. He was already dis- 
posed to permit the Company to resume its mercantile 
operations in his country, when he received the news 

25 that an English armament was in the Hoogley. He 
instantly ordered all his troops to assemble at Moor- 
shedabad, and marched towards Calcutta. 

Clive had commenced operations with his usual 
vigour. He took Budge-budge, routed the garrison of 

30 Fort William, recovered Calcutta, stormed and sacked 
Hoogley. The Nabob, already disposed to make some 
concessions to the English, was confirmed in his pacific 
disposition by these proofs of their power and spirit. 
He accordingly made overtures to the chiefs of the 

35 invading armament, and offered to restore the factory. 



80 MACAULAY'S ESSAYS 

find to give compensation to those whom he had 
despoiled. 

Olive's profession was war ; and he felt that there 
was something discreditable in an accommodation with 
Surajah Dowlah. But his power was limited. A com- 5 
mittee, chiefly composed of servants of .the Company 
who had fled from Calcutta, had the principal direction 
of atfair^; and these persons were eager to be restored 
to their posts and compensated for their losses. The 
government of Madras, apprised that war had com- lo 
menced in Europe, and apprehensive of an attack from 
the French, became impatient for the return of the 
armament. The promises of the iSTabob were large, the 
chances of a contest dou])tful; and Clive consented to 
treat, though he expressed his regret that things should 15 
not be concluded in so glorious a manner as he could 
have wished. 

With this negotiation commences a new chapter in 
the life of Clive. Hitherto he had been merely a soldier 
carrying into effect, with eminent ability and valour, 20 
the plans of others. Henceforth he is to be chiefly 
regarded as a statesman; and his military movements 
are to be considered as subordinate to his political 
designs. That in his new capacity he displayed great 
ability, and obtained great success, is unquestionable. 25 
But it is also unquestionable that the transactions in 
which he now began to take a part have left a stain 
on his moral character. 

We can by no means agree with Sir John Malcolm, 
who is obstinately resolved to see nothing but honour 30 
and integrity in the conduct of his hero. But we can 
as little agree with Mr. Mill, who has gone so far as 
to say that Clive was a man ^^to whom deception, when 
it suited his purpose, never cost a pang." Clive seems 
to us to have been constitutionally the very opposite 35 



LOED CLIVE 81 

of a knave, bold even to temerity, sincere even to 
indiscretion, hearty in friendship, open in enmity. 
Neither in his private life, nor in those parts of his 
public life in which he had to do with his countrymen, 
5 do we find any signs of a propensity to cunning. On 
the contrary, in all the disputes in which he was 
engaged as an Englishman against Englishmen, from 
his boxing-matches at school to those stormy altercations 
at the India House and in Parliament amidst which 

10 his later years were passed, his very faults were those 
of a high and magnanimous spirit. The truth seems 
to have been that he considered Oriental politics as a 
game in which nothing was unfair. He knew that the 
standard of morality among the natives of India differed 

15 widely from that established in England. He knew 
that he had to deal with men destitute of what in 
Europe is called honour, with men who would give 
any promise without hesitation, and break any promise 
without shame, with men who would unscrupulously 

20 employ corruption, perjury, forgery, to compass their 
ends. His letters show that the great difference 
between Asiatic and European morality was con- 
stantly in his thoughts. He seems to have im- 
agined, most erroneously in our opinion, that 

25 he could effect nothing against such adversaries, 
if he was content to be bound by ties from which 
they were free, if he went on telling truth, and 
hearing none, if he fulfilled, to his own hurt, all 
his engagements with confederates who never kept an 

30 engagement that was not to their advantage. Accord- 
ingly this man, in the other parts of his life an hon- 
ourable English gentleman and a soldier, was no sooner 
matched against an Indian intriguer, than he became 
himself an Indian intriguer, and descended, without 

35 scruple, to falsehood, to hypocritical caresses, to the 



82 MACAULAY'S ESSAYS 

substitution of documents^ and to the counterfeiting of 
hands. 

The negotiations between the English and the Nabob 
were carried on chietiy by two agents, Mr. Watts, a 
servant of the Company, and a Bengalee of the name 5 
of Omichund. This Omichund had been one of the 
wealthiest native merchants resident at Calcutta, and 
had sustained great losses in consequence of the Nabob's 
expedition against that place. In the course of his 
commercial transactions, he had seen much of the 10 
English, and was peculiarly qualified to serve as a 
medium of communication between them and a native 
court. He possessed great influence with his own race, 
and had in large measure the Hindoo talents, quick 
observation, tact, dexterity, perseverance, and the 15 
Hindoo vices, servility, greediness, and treachery. 

The Nabob behaved with all the faithlessness of an 
Indian statesman, and with all the levity of a boy 
whose mind had been enfeebled by power and self- 
indulgence. He promised, retracted, hesitated, evaded. 20 
At one time he advanced with his army in a threat- 
ening manner towards Calcutta; but when he saw the 
resolute front which the English presented, he fell back 
in alarm, and consented to make peace with them on 
their own terms. The treaty was no sooner concluded 25 
than he formed new designs against them. He intrigued 
with the French authorities at Chandernagore. He 
invited Bussy to march from the Deccan to the Hoogley, 
and to drive the English out of Bengal. All this was 
well known to Clive and Watson. They determined 30 
accordingly to strike a decisive blow^, and to attack 
Chandernagore, before the force there could be strength- 
ened by new arrivals, either from the south of India, 
or from Europe. Watson directed the expedition by 
water, Clive by land. The success of the combined 35 



LOED CLIVE 83 

movements was rapid and complete. The fort, the gar- 
rison, the artillery, the. military stores, all fell into the 
hands of the English. Near five hundred European 
troops were among the prisoners. 

5 The N'abob had feared and hated the English, even 
while he was still able to oppose to them their French 
rivals. The French were now vanquished; and he 
began to regard the English with still greater fear and 
still greater hatred. His weak and unprincipled mind 

10 oscillated between servility and insolence. One day he 
sent a large sum to Calcutta, as part of the compensa- 
tion due for the wrongs which he had committed. The 
next day he sent a present of jewels to Bussy, exhorting 
that distinguished officer to hasten to protect Bengal 

15 "against Clive, the daring in war, on whom," says His 
Highness, "may all bad fortune attend." He ordered 
his army to march against the English. He counter- 
manded his orders. He tore Olive's letters. He then 
sent answers in the most florid language of compliment. 

20 He ordered Watts out of his presence, and threatened 
to impale him. He again sent for Watts, and begged 
pardon for the insult. In the meantime, his wretched 
maladministration, his folly, his dissolute manners, and 
his love of the lowest company, had disgusted all -classes 

25 of his subjects, soldiers, traders, civil functionaries, the 
proud and ostentatious Mahommedans, the timid, sup- 
ple, and parsimonious Hindoos. A formidable con- 
federacy was formed against him, in which were included 
Eoydullub, the minister of finance, Meer Jaffier, the 

30 principal commander of the troops, and Jugget Seit, 
the richest banker in India. The plot was confided to 
the English agents, and a communication was opened 
between the malcontents at Moorshedabad and the 
committee at Oalcutta. 

85 In the committee there was much hesitation; but 



84 MACAULAY'S ESSAYS 

Clime's voice was given in favour of the conspirators, 
and his vigour and firmness bore down all opposition. 
It was determined that the English should lend their 
powerful assistance to depose Surajah Dowlah, and to 
place Meer Jaffier on the throne of Bengal. In return, 5 
Meer Jaffier promised ample compensation to the Com- 
pany and its servants, and a liberal donative to the 
army, the navy, and the committee. The odious vices 
of Surajah Dowlah, the wrongs which the English had 
suffered at his hands, the dangers to which our trade lO 
must have been exposed, had he continued to reign, 
appear to us fully to justify the resolution of deposing 
him. But nothing can justify the dissimulation which 
Clive stooped to practise. He wrote to Surajah Dowlah 
in terms so affectionate that they for a time lulled that 15 
weak prince into perfect security. The same courier 
who carried this "soothing letter," as Clive calls it, to 
the Nabob, carried to Mr. Watts a letter in the following 
terms : "Tell Meer Jaffier to fear nothing. I will join 
him with five thousand men who never turned their 20 
backs. Assure him I will march night and day to his 
assistance, and stand by him as long as I have a man 
left." 

It was impossible that a plot which had so many 
ramifications should long remain entirely concealed. 25 
Enough reached the ears of the N'abob to arouse his 
suspicions. But he was soon quieted by the fictions 
and artifices which the inventive genius of Omichund 
produced with miraculous readiness. All was going 
well ; the plot was nearly ripe ; when Clive learned 30 
that Omichund was likely to play false. The artful 
Bengalee had been promised a liberal compensation for 
all that he had lost at Calcutta. But this would not 
satisfy him. His services had been great. He held 
the thread of the whole intrigue. By one word breathed 35 



LOKD CLIVE 85 

in the ear of Surajah Dowlah, he could undo all that 
he had done. The lives of Watts, of Meer Jaffier, of all 
the conspirators, were at his mercy ; and he determined 
to take advantage of his situation and to make his own 

5 terms. He demanded three hundred thousand pounds 
sterling as the price of his secrecy and of his assistance. 
The committee, incensed by the treachery and appalled 
by the danger, knew not what course to take. But 
Clive was more than Omichund's match in Omichund^s 

10 own arts. The man, he said, was a villain. Any artifice 
which would defeat such knavery was justifiable. The 
best course would be to promise what was asked. 
Omichund would soon be at their mercy; and then 
they might punish him by withholding from him, not 

15 only the bribe which he now demanded, but also the 
compensation which all the other sufferers of Calcutta 
were to receive. 

His advice was taken. But how was the wary and 
sagacious Hindoo to be deceived? He had demanded 

20 that an article touching his claims should be inserted 
in the treaty between Meer Jaffier and the English, and 
he would not be satisfied unless he saw it with his own 
eyes. Clive had an expedient ready. Two treaties were 
drawn up, one on white paper, the other on red, the 

25 former real, the latter fictitious. In the former 
Omichund's name was not mentioned; the latter, which 
was to be shown to him, contained a stipulation in his 
favour. 

But another difficulty arose. Admiral Watson had 

80 scruples about signing the red treaty. Omichund's 
vigilance and acuteness were such that the absence of 
so important a name would probably awaken his sus- 
picions. But Clive was not a man to do anything by 
halves. We almost blush to write it. He forged 

85 Admiral Watson's name. 



86 MACAULAY^S ESSAYS 

All was now ready for action. Mr. Watts fled secretly 
from Moorshedabad. Clive pnt liis troops in motion, 
and wrote to the Nabob in a tone very different from 
that of his previous letters. He set forth all the wrongs 
which the British suffered, offered to submit the points 5 
in dispute to the arbitration of Meer Jaflfier, and con- 
cluded by announcing that, as the rains were about to 
set in, he and his men would do themselves the honour 
of waiting on his Highness for an answer. 

Sura j ah Dowlah instantly assembled his whole force, lo 
and marched to encounter the English. It had been 
agreed that Meer Jaffier should separate himself from 
the Nabob, and carry over his division to Clive, But, 
as the decisive moment approached, the fears of the 
conspirator overpowered his ambition. Clive had ad- is 
vanced to Cossimbuzar; the Nabob lay with a mighty 
power a few miles off at Plassey; and still Meer Jaffier 
delayed to fulfil his engagements, and returned evasive 
answers to the earnest remonstrances of the English 
general. 20 

Clive was in a painfully anxious situation. He could 
place no confidence in the sincerity or in the courage 
of his confederate; and, whatever confidence he might 
place in his own military talents, and in the valour 
and discipline of his troops, it was no light thing to 25 
engage an army twenty times as numerous as his own. 
Before him lay a river over which it was easy to ad- 
vance, but over which, if things went ill, not one of his 
little band would ever return. On this occasion, for 
the first and for the last time, his dauntless spirit, 30 
during a few hours, shrank from the fearful responsi- 
bility of making a decision. He called a council of 
war. The majority pronounced against fighting; and 
Clive declared his concurrence with the majority. 
Long afterwards, he said that he had never called but 35 



LOKD CLIVE 87 

one council of war, and that, if he had taken the advice 
of that council, the British would never have been 
masters of Bengal. But scarcely had the meeting 
broken up when he was himself again. He retired. 
5 alone under the shade of some trees, and passed near 
an hour there in thought. He came back determined 
to put everything to the hazard, and gave orders that 
all should be in readiness for passing the river on the 
morrow. 

10 The river was passed; and, at the close of a toilsome 
day^s march, the army, long after sunset, took up its 
quarters in a grove of mango-trees near Plassey, within 
a mile of the enemy. Clive was unable to sleep; he 
heard, through the whole night, the sound of drums 

15 and cymbals from the vast camp of the Nabob. It is 

not strange that even his stout heart should now and 

then have sunk, when he reflected against what odds, 

and for what a prize, he was in a few hours to contend. 

Nor was the rest of Surajah Dowlah more peaceful. 

20 His mind, at once w^eak and stormy, was distracted by 
wild and horrible apprehensions. Appalled by the 
greatness and nearness of the crisis, distrusting his 
captains, dreading every one who approached him, 
dreading to be left alone, he sat gloomily in his tent, 

25 haunted, a Greek poet would have said, by the furies 
of those who had cursed him with their last breath in 
the Black Hole. 

The day broke, the day which was to decide the fate 
of India. At sunrise the army of the Nabob, pouring 

30 through many openings of the camp, began to move 
towards the grove where the English lay."" Forty thou- 
sand infantry, armed with firelocks, pikes, swords, bows 
and arrows, covered the plain. They were accompanied 
by fifty pieces of ordnance of the largest size, each 

35 tugged by a long team of white oxen, and each pushed 



88 MACAULAY^S ESSAYS 

on from behind by an elephant. Some smaller gnns, 
under the direction of a few French auxiliaries, were 
perhaps more formidable. The cavalry were fifteen 
thousand, drawn, not from the effeminate population 
of Bengal, but from the bolder race which inhabits the ^ 
northern provinces ; and the practised eye of Clive could 
perceive that both the men and the horses were more 
powerful than those of the Carnatic. The force which 
he had to oppose to this great multitude consisted of 
only three thousand men. But of these nearly a thou- ^^ 
sand were English ; and all were led by English officers, 
and trained in the English discipline. Conspicuous in 
the ranks of the little army were the men of the Thirty- 
Ninth Eegiment, which still bears on its colours, amidst 
many honourable additions won under Wellington in i^ 
Spain and Gascony, the name of Plassey, and the proud 
motto, Primus in Indis. 

The battle commenced with a cannonade in which 
the artillery of the ISTabob did scarcely any execution, 
while the few field-pieces of the English produced great 20 
effect. Several of the most distinguished officers in ' 
Surajah Dowlah's service fell. Disorder began to 
spread through his ranks. His own terror increased 
every moment. One of the conspirators urged on him 
the expediency of retreating. The insidious advice, 25 
agreeing as it did with what his own terrors suggested, 
was readily received. He ordered his army to fall back, 
and this order decided his fate. Clive snatched the 
moment, and ordered his troops to advance. The con- 
fused and dispirited multitude gave way before the 30 
onset of disciplined valour. 'No mob attacked by regu- 
lar soldiers was ever more completely routed. The 
little band of Frenchmen, who alone ventured to con- 
front the English, were swept down the stream of 
fugitives. In an hour the forces of Surajah Dowlah 35 



LORD CLIVH 89 

were dispersed, never to reassemble. Only five hundred 
of the vanquished were slain. But their camp, their 
guns, their baggage, innumerable wagons, innumer- 
able cattle, remained in the power of the conquerors. 
- With the loss of twenty-two soldiers killed and fifty 
wounded, Clive had scattered an army of near sixty 
thousand men, and subdued an empire larger and more 
populous than Great Britain. 

Meer Jaffier had given no assistance to the English 

10 during the action. But, as soon as he saw that the fate 
of the day was decided, he drew off his division of the 
army, and, when the battle was over, sent his congratu- 
lations to his ally. The next morning he repaired to 
the English quarters, not a little uneasy as to the re- 

15 ception which awaited him there. He gave evident 
signs of alarm when a guard was drawn out to receive 
him with the honours due to his rank. But his appre- 
hensions were speedily removed, Clive came forward 
to met him, embraced him, saluted him as Nabob of 

20 the three great provinces of Bengal, Bahar, and Orissa, 
listened graciously to his apologies, and advised him to 
march without delay to Moorshedabad. 

Sura j ah Dowlah had fled from the field of battle 
with all the speed with which a fleet camel could carry 

25 him, and arrived at Moorshedabad in little more than 
twenty-four hours. There he called his councillors 
round him. The wisest advised him to put himself into 
the hands of the English, from whom he had nothing 
worse to fear than deposition and confinement. But 

30 he attributed this suggestion to treachery. Others 
urged him to try the chance of war again. He approved 
the advice, and issued orders accordingly. But he 
wanted spirit to adhere even during one day to a manly 
resolution. He learned that Meer Jaffier had arrived, 

35 and his terrors became insupportable. Disguised in a 



90 MACAULAY'S ESSAYS 

mean dress, with a casket of jewels in his hand, he let 
himself down at night from a window of his palace, 
and accompanied by only two attendants, embarked on 
the river for Patna. 

In a few days Clive arrived at Moorshedabad, escorted 5 
by two hundred English soldiers and three hundred 
sepoys. For his residence had been assigned a palace, 
which was snrronnded by a garden so spacious that all 
the troops who accompanied him conld conveniently 
encamp within it. The ceremony of the installation of lO 
Meer Jaffier was instantly performed. Clive led the 
new Nabob to the seat of honour, placed him on it, 
presented to him, after the immemorial fashion of the 
East, an offering of gold, and then, turning to the 
natives who filled the hall, congratulated them on the 15 
good fortune which had freed them from a tyrant. 
He was compelled on this occasion to use the 
services of an interpreter; for it is remarkable that, 
long as he resided in India, intimately acquainted as 
he was with Indian politics and with the Indian char- 20 
acter, and adored as he was by his Indian soldiery, he 
never learned to express himself with facility in any 
Indian language. He is said indeed to have been some- 
times under the necessity of employing, in his inter- 
course with natives of India, the smattering of 25 
Portuguese which he had acquired, when a lad, in 
Brazil. 

The new sovereign was now called upon to fulfil the 
engagements into which he had entered with his allies. 
A conference was held at the house of Jugget Seit, the 30 
great banker, for the purpose of making the necessary 
arrangements. Omichund came thither, fully believing 
himself to stand high in the favour of Clive, who, with 
dissimulation surpassing even the dissimulation of 
Bengal, had up to that day treated him with undimin- 35 



LOKD CLIVE 91 

ished kindness. The white treaty was produced and 
read. Clive then turned to Mr. Scrafton, one of the 
servants of the Company, and said in English, "It is 
now time to undeceive Omichund.'^ "Omichund/'' said 
5 Mr. Scrafton in Hindostanee, "the red treaty is a trick. 
You are to have nothing.^' Omichund fell back insensi- 
ble into the arms of his attendants. He revived; but 
his mind was irreparably ruined. Clive, who, though 
little troubled by scruples of conscience in his dealings 

10 with Indian politicians, was not inhuman, seems to 
have been touched. He saw Omichund a few days later, 
spoke to him kindly, advised him to make a pilgrimage 
to one of the great temples of India, in the hope that 
change of scene might restore his health, and was even 

15 disposed, notwithstanding all that had passed, again to 
employ him in the public service. But from the mo- 
ment of that sudden shock, the unhappy man sank 
gradually into idiocy. He who had formerly been dis- 
tinguished by the strength of his understanding and the 

20 simplicity of his habits, now squandered the remains- 
of his fortune on childish trinkets, and loved to exhibit 
himself dressed in rich garments, and hung with pre- 
cious stones. In this abject state he languished a few 
months, and then died. 

25 We should not think it necessary to offer any remarks 
for the purpose of directing the judgment of our read- 
ers, with respect to this transaction, had not Sir John 
Malcolm undertaken to defend it in all its parts. He 
regrets, indeed, that it was necessary to employ means 

30 so liable to abuse as forgery; but he will not admit 
that any blame attaches to those who deceived the de- 
ceiver. He thinks that the English were not bound to 
keep faith with one who kept no faith with them, and 
that, if they had fulfilled their engagements with the 

35 wily Bengalee, so signal an example of successful trea- 



92 MACAULAY'S ESSAYS 

son would have produced a crowd of imitators. Now, 
we wiir not discuss this point on any rigid principles 
of morality. Indeed, it is quite unnecessary to do so: 
for, looking at the question as a question of expediency 
in the lowest sense of the word, and using no argu- 5 
ments but such as Machiavelli might have employed in 
his conferences with Borgia, we are convinced that Clive 
was altogether in the wrong, and that he committed, 
not merely a crime, but a blunder. That honesty is the 
best policy is a maxim which we firmly believe to be lo 
generally correct, even with respect to the temporal 
interest of individuals ; but with respect to societies, the 
rule is subject to still fewer exceptions, and that for 
this reason, that the life of societies is longer than the 
life of individuals. It is possible to mention men who 15 
have owed great worldly prosperity to breaches of pri- 
vate faith ; but we doubt whether it be possible to men- 
tion a state which has on the whole been a gainer by 
a breach of public faith. The entire history of British 
India is an illustration of the great truth, that it is not 20 
prudent to oppose perfidy to perfid}^, and that the most 
efficient weapon with which men can encounter false- 
hood is truth. During a long course of years, the Eng- 
lish rulers of India, surrounded by allies and enemies 
whom no engagement could bind, have generally acted 25 
with sincerity and uprightness ; and the event has proved 
that sincerity and uprightness are wisdom. English 
valour and English intelligence have done less to extend 
and to preserve our Oriental empire than English verac- 
ity. All that we could have gained by imitating the 30 
doublings, the evasions, the fictions, the perjuries which 
have been employed against us, is as nothing, when 
compared with what we have gained by being the one 
power in India on whose word reliance can be placed. 
No oath which superstition can devise, no hostage how- 35 



LOED CLIVE 93 

ever precious, inspires a hundredth part of the confi- 
dence which is produced by the "yea, yea/' and "nay, 
nay/' of a British envoy. No fastness, however strong 
by art or nature, gives to its inmates a security like 
5 that enjoyed by the chief who, passing through the ter- 
ritories of powerful and deadly enemies, is armed with 
the British guarantee. The mightiest princes of the 
East can scarcely, by the offer of enormous usury, draw 
forth any portion of the wealth which is concealed under 

10 the hearths of their subjects. The British Government 
offers little more than four per cent.; and avarice hast- 
ens to bring forth tens of millions of rupees from its 
most secret repositories. A hostile monarch may prom- 
ise mountains of gold to our sepoys, on condition that 

15 they will desert the standard of the Company. The 
Company promises only a moderate pension after a 
long service. But every sepoy knows that the promise 
of the Company will be kept; he knows that if he lives 
a hundred years his rice and salt are as secure as the 

20 salary of the Governor-General : and he knows that there 
is not another state in India which would not, in spite 
of the most solemn vows, leave him to die of hunger in 
a ditch as soon as he had ceased to be useful. The 
greatest advantage which a government can possess is 

25 to be the one trustworthy government in the midst of 
governments which nobody can trust. This advantage 
we enjoy in Asia. Had we acted during the last two 
generations on the principles which Sir John Malcolm 
appears to have considered as sound, had we, as often 

30 as we had to deal with people like Omichund, retaliated 
by lying and forging, and breaking faith, after their 
fashion, it is our firm belief that no courage or capacity 
could have upheld our empire. 

Sir John Malcolm admits that Clive's breach of faith 

35 could be justified only by the strongest necessity. As 



94 MACAULAY'S ESSAYS 

we think that breach of faith not only unnecessary, but 
most inexpedient, we need hardly say that we altogether 
condemn it. 

Omichund was not the only victim of the revolution. 
Sura j ah Dowlah was taken a few days after his flight, 5 
and was brought before Meer Jaffier. There he flung 
himself on the ground in convulsions of fear, and with 
tears and loud cries implored the mercy wliich he had 
never shown. Meer Jaffier hesitated; but his son 
Meeran, a youth of seventeen, who in feebleness of lo 
brain and savageness of nature greatly resembled the 
wretched captive, was implacable. Surajah Dowlah was 
led into a secret chamber, to which in a short time the 
ministers of death were sent. In this act the English 
bore no part ; and Meer Jaffier understood so much of 15 
their feelings that he thought it necessary to apologize 
to them for having avenged them on their most 
malignant enemy. 

The shower of wealth now fell copiously on the 
Company and its servants. A sum of eight hundred 20 
thousand pounds sterling, in coined silver, was sent 
down the river from Moorshedabad to Fort William. 
The fleet which conveyed this treasure consisted of more 
than a hundred boats, and performed its triumphal 
voyage with flags flying and music playing. Calcutta, 25 
which a few months before had been desolate, was now 
more prosperous than ever. Trade revived; and the 
signs of affluence appeared in every English house. As 
to Clive, there was no limit to his acquisitions but his 
own moderation. The treasury of Bengal was thrown 30 
open to him. There were piled up, after the usage of 
Indian princes, immense masses of coin, among which 
might not seldom be detected the florins and byzants 
with which, before any European ship had turned the 
Cape of Good Hope, the Venetians purchased the stuffs 35 



LOED CLIVE 95 

' and spices of the East. Clive walked between heaps of 
gold and silver, crowned with rubies and diamonds, and 
was at liberty to help himself. He accepted between 
two and three hundred thousand pounds. 
5 The pecuniary transactions between Meer Jaffier and 
Clive were sixteen years later condemned by the public 
voice, and severely criticised in Parliament. They are 
vehemently defended by Sir John Malcolm. The ac- 
cusers of the victorious general represented his gains as 

10 the wages of corruption, or as plunder extorted at the 
point of the sword from a helpless ally. The biographer, 
on the other hand, considers these great acquisitions 
as free gifts, honourable alike to the donor and to the 
receiver, and compares them to the rewards bestowed 

15 by foreign powers on Marlborough, on Nelson, and on 
Wellington. It had always, he says, been customary in 
the East to give and receive presents; and there was, 
as yet, no Act of Parliam.ent positively prohibiting 
English functionaries in India from profiting by this 

20 Asiatic usage. This reasoning, we own, does not quite 
satisfy us. We do not suspect Clive of selling the in- 
terests of his emplo3^ers or his country; but we cannot 
acquit him of having done what, if not in itself evil, 
was yet of evil example. Nothing is more clear than 

25 that a general ought to be the servant of his own gov- 
ernment, and of no other. It follows that whatever 
rewards he receives for his services ought to be given 
either by his own government, or with the full knowl- 
edge and approbation of his own government. This 

30 rule ought to be strictly maintained even with respect 
to the merest bauble, with respect to a cross, a medal, 
or a yard of coloured riband. But how can any gov- 
ernment'be well served, if those who command its forces 
are at liberty, without its permission, without its privity, 

35 to accept princely fortunes from its allies ? It is idle 



96 MACAULAY'S ESSAYS 

to say that there was then no Act of Parliament pro- 
hibiting the practice of taking presents from Asiatic 
sovereigns. It is not on the Act which was passed at 
a later period for the purpose of preventing any such 
taking of presents, but on grounds which were valid 5 
before that Act was passed, on grounds of common law 
and common sense, that we arraign the conduct of 
Clive. There is no Act that we know of, prohibiting 
the Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs from being 
in the pay of continental powers, but it is not the less lo 
true that a Secretary who should receive a secret pen- 
sion from France Avould grossly violate his duty, and 
would deserve severe punishment. Sir John Malcolm 
compares the conduct of Clive with that of the Duke 
of Wellington. Suppose, — and we beg pardon for put- 15 
ting such a supposition even for the sake of argument, 
— that the Duke of Wellington had, after the campaign 
of 1815, and while he commanded the army of occu- 
pation in France, privately accepted two hundred thou- 
sand pounds from Louis the Eighteenth, as a mark of 20 
gratitude for the great services which his Grace had 
rendered to the House of Bourbon; what would be 
thought of such a transaction? Yet the statute-book 
no more forbids the taking of presents in Europe now 
than it forbade the taking of presents in Asia then. 25 

At the same time, it must be admitted that, in Olive's 
case, there were many extenuating circumstances. He 
considered himself as the general, not of the Crown, but 
of the Company. The Company had, by implication at 
least, authorised its agents to enrich themselves by 30 
means of the liberality of the native princes, and by 
other means still more objectionable. It was hardly to 
be expected that the servant should entertain stricter 
notions of his duty than were entertained by his mas- 
ters. Though Clive did not distinctly acquaint his em- 35 



LOED CLIYE 97 

ployers with what had taken place and request their 
sanction, he did not, on the other hand, by studied con-* 
ceahnent, show that he was conscious of having done 
wrong. On the contrary, he avowed with the greatest 

5 openness that the Nabob's bounty had raised him to af- 
fluence. Lastty, though we think that he ought not 
in such a way to have taken anything, we must admit 
that he deserves praise for having taken so little. He 
accepted twenty lacs of rupees. It would have cost him 

10 only a word to make the twenty forty. It was a very 
easy exercise of virtue to declaim in England against 
Olive's rapacity ; but not one in a hundred of his 
accusers would have shown so much self-command in 
the treasury of Moorshedabad. 

15 Meer Jaffier could be upheld on the throne only by the 
hand which had placed him on it. He was not, indeed, 
a mere boy ; nor had he been so unfortunate as to be born 
in the purple. He was not therefore quite so imbecile 
or quite so depraved as his predecessor had been. But 

20 he had none of the talents or virtues which his post 
required; and his son and heir, Meeran,. was another 
Surajah Dowlah. The recent revolution had unsettled 
the minds of men. Many chiefs were in open insurrec- 
tion against the new Nabob. The viceroy of the rich 

25 and powerful province of Oude, who, like the other 
viceroys of the Mogul was now in truth an independent 
sovereign, menaced Bengal with invasion. Nothing but 
the talents and authority of Olive could support the tot- 
tering government. While things were in this state, a 

30 ship arrived with despatches which had been written at 
the India House before the news of the battle of Plassey 
had reached London. The Directors had determined to 
place the English settlements in Bengal under a govern- 
ment constituted in the most cumbrous and absurd 

35 manner; and to make the matter worse, no place in 



98 MACAULAY'S ESSAYS 

the arrangement was assigned to Clive. The persons 
who were selected to form this new government, greatly 
to their honour, took on themselves the responsibility 
of disobeying these preposterous orders, and invited 
Clive to exercise the supreme authority. He consented ; 5 
and it soon appeared that the servants of the Company 
had only anticipated the wishes of their employers. The 
Directors, on receiving news of Clive's brilliant success, 
instantly appointed him governor of their possessions 
in Bengal, with the highest marks of gratitude and 10 
esteem. His power was now boundless, and far sur- 
passed even that which Dupleix had attained in the 
south of India. Meer Jaffier regarded him with slavish 
awe. On one occasion, the Nabob spoke with severity 
to a native chief of high rank, whose followers had been 15 
engaged in a brawl with some of the Company's sepoys. 
"Are you yet to learn,'' he said, "who that Colonel Clive 
is, and in what station God has placed him?" The 
chief, who, as a famous jester and an old friend of 
Meer Jaffier, could venture to take liberties, answered, 20 
"I affront the Colonel! I, who never get up in the 
morning without making three low bows to his jackass !" 
This was hardly an exaggeration. Europeans and na- 
tives were alike at Clive's feet. The English regarded 
him as the only man who could force Meer Jaffier to 25 
keep his engagements with them. Meer Jaffier regarded 
him as the only man who could protect the new dynasty 
against turbulent subjects and encroaching neighbours. 
It is but justice to say that Clive used his power ably 
and vigorously for the advantage of his country. He 30 
sent forth an expedition against the tract lying to the 
north of the Carnatic. In this tract the French still 
had the ascendency; and it was important to dislodge 
them. The conduct of the enterprise was intrusted to 
an officer of the name of Forde, who was then little 35 



LORD CLIVE 99 

known, but in whom the keen e3'e of the governor had 
detected military talents of a high order.. The success 
of the expedition was rapid and splendid. 

While a considerable part of the arni}^ of Bengal was 
5 thus engaged at a distance, a new and formidable dan- 
ger menaced the western frontier. The Great Mogul 
was a prisoner at Delhi in the hands of a subject. His 
eldest son, named Shah Alum, destined to be, during 
many years, the sport of adverse fortune, and to be a 

10 tool in the hands, first of the Mahrattas, and then of 
the English, had fled from the palace of his father. His 
birth was still revered in India. Some powerful princes, 
the Xabob of Oude in particular, were inclined to favour 
him. Shah Alum found it easy to draw to his standard 

15 great numbers of the military adventurers with whom 
every part of the country swarmed. An army of forty 
thousand men, of various races and religions, Mahrat- 
tas, Eohillas, Jauts, and Afghans, were speedily assem- 
bled round him; and he formed the design of over- 

20 throwing the upstart whom the English had elevated 
to a throne, and of establishing his own authority 
throughout Bengal, Orissa, and Bahar. 

Meer Jaffier's terror was extreme ; and the only expe- 
dient which occurred to him was to purchase, by the 

25 payment of a large sum of money, an accommodation 
with Shah Alum. This expedient had been repeatedly 
employed by those who, before him, had ruled the rich 
and unwarlike provinces near the mouth of the Ganges, 
But Clive treated the suggestion with a scorn worthy 

30 of his strong sense and dauntless courage. ''^If you do 
this,'' he wrote, "you will have the Xabob of Oude, 
the Mahrattas, and many more, come from all parts 
of the confines of your country, who wall bully you out 
of money till you have none left in your treasury. I 

35 beg your Excellency will rely on the fidelity of the Eng- 



100 MACAULAY^S ESSAYS 

lish^ and of those troops which are attached to you." 
He wrote in a similar strain to the governor of Patna, 
a brave native soldier whom he highly esteemed. ^^Come 
to no terms; defend your city to the last. Eest assured 
that the English are staunch and firm friends, and that 5 
they never desert a cause in which they have once taken 
a part." 

He kept his word. Shah Alum had invested Patna, 
and was on the point of proceeding to storm, when he 
learned that the Colonel was advancing by forced 10 
marches. The whole army which was approaching con- 
sisted of only four hundred and fifty Europeans and 
two thousand five hundred sepoys. But Clive and his 
Englishmen were now objects of dread over all the East. 
As soon as his advance guard appeared, the besiegers 15 
fled before him. A few French adventurers who were 
about the person of the prince advised him to try the 
chance of battle ; but in vain. In a few days this great 
army, which had been regarded with so much uneasi- 
ness by the court of Moorshedabad, melted away before 20 
the mere teiTor of the British name. 

The conqueror returned in triumph to Fort William. 
The joy of Meer Jaffier was as unbounded as his fears 
had been, and led him to bestow on his preserver a 
princely token of gratitude. The quit-rent which the 25 
East India Company were bound to pay to the Nabob 
for the extensive lands held by them to the south of 
Calcutta amounted to near thirty thousand pounds ster- 
ling a 3^ear. The whole of this splendid estate, sufficient 
to support with dignity the highest rank of the British 30 
peerage, was now conferred on Clive for life. 

This present we think Clive justified in accepting. 
It "was a present which, from its very nature, could be 
BO secret. In fact, the Company itself was his tenant, 



LOED CLIVE 101 

and, by its acquiescence, signified its approbation of 
Meer Jaffier's grant. 

But the gratitude of Meer Jaffier did not last long. 
He had for some time felt that the powerful ally who 

5 had set him up, might pull him down, and had been 
looking round for support against the formidable 
strength by which he had himself been hitherto sup- 
23orted. He knew that it would be impossible to find 
among the natives of India any force which would look 

10 the Colonel's little army in the face. The French power 
in Bengal was extinct. But the fame of the Dutch had 
anciently been great in the Eastern seas; and it was 
not yet distinctly known in Asia how much the power 
of Holland had declined in Europe. Secret communi- 

15 cations passed between the court of Moorshedabad and 
the Dutch factory at Chinsurah ; and urgent letters were 
sent from Chinsurah, exhorting the government of 
Batavia to fit out an expedition which might balance 
the power of the English in Bengal. The authorities 

20 of Batavia, eager to extend the influence of their coun- 
try, and still more eager to obtain for themselves a 
share of the wealth which had recently raised so many 
English adventurers to opulence, equipped a powerful 
armament. Seven large ships from Java arrived unex- 

25 pectedty in the Hoogiey. The military force on board 
amounted to fifteen hundred men, of whom about one 
half were Europeans. The enterprise was w^ell timed. 
Clive had sent such large detachments to oppose the 
French in the Carnatic that his army was now inferior 

30 in number to that of the Dutch. He knew that Meer 
Jaffier secretly favoured the invaders. He knew that 
he took on himself a serious responsibility if he attacked 
the forces of a friendly power; that the English min- 
isters could not wish to see a war with Holland added 

35 to that in which they were already engaged with France ; 



102 MACAULAY'S ESSAYS 

that they might disavow his acts ; that they might pun- 
ish him. He had recently remitted a great part of his 
fortune to Europe^ through the Dutch East India Com- 
pany ; and he had therefore a strong interest in avoiding 
any quarreL But he was satisfied that, if he suffered 5 
the Batavian armament to pass up the river and to 
join the garrison of Chinsurah, Meer Jaffier would throw 
himself into the arms of these new allies, and that the 
English ascendency in Bengal would be exposed to most 
serious danger. He took his resolution with character- 10 
istic boldness, and was most ably seconded by his officers, 
particularly by Colonel Forde, to whom the most impor- 
tant part of the operations was intrusted. The Dutch 
attempted to force a passage. The English encountered 
them both by land and water. On both elements the 15 
enemy had a great superiorit}^ of force. On both they 
were signally defeated. Their ships were taken. Their 
troops were put to a total rout. Almost all the Euro- 
pean soldiers, who constituted the main strength of the 
invading arm}^, were killed or taken. The conquerors 20 
sat down before Chinsurah; and the chiefs of that set- 
tlement, now thoroughly humbled, consented to the 
terms which Clive dictated. They engaged to build no 
fortifications, and to raise no troops beyond a small 
force necessary for the police of their factories ; and it 25 
was distinctly provided that any violation of these cove- 
nants should be punished with instant expulsion from 
Bengal. 

Three months after this great victory, Clive sailed 
for England. At home, honours and rewards awaited 30 
him, not indeed equal to his claims or to his ambition, 
but still such as, when his age, his rank in the army, 
and his original place in society are considered, must be 
pronounced rare and splendid. He was raised to the 
Irish peerage, and encouraged to expect an English title. 35 



LOED CLIVE 103 

George the Third, who had just ascended the throne, 
received him with great distinction. The ministers paid 
him marked attention; and Pitt, whose influence in 
the House of Commons and in the country was un- 

5 bounded, was eager to mark his regard for one whose 
exploits had contributed so much to the lustre of that 
memorable period. The great orator had already in 
Parliament described Clive as a heaven-born general, as 
a man who, bred to the labour of the desk, had dis- 

10 played a military genius which might excite the admira- 
tion of the King of Prussia. There were then no re- 
porters in the gallery; but these words, emphatically 
spoken by the first statesman of the age, had passed 
from mouth to mouth, had been transmitted to Clive 

15 in Bengal, and had greatly delighted and flattered him. 
Indeed, since the death of Wolfe, Clive was the only 
English general of whom his countrymen had much 
reason to be proud. The Duke of Cumberland had been, 
generally unfortunate; and his single victory, having 

20 been gained over his countrymen and used with merci- 
less severity, had been more fatal to his popularity than 
his many defeats. Conway, versed in the learning of 
his profession, and personally courageous, wanted vigour 
and capacity. Granby, honest, generous, and brave as 

25 a lion, had neither science nor genius. Sackville, in- 
ferior in knowledge and abilities to none of his con- 
temporaries, had incurred, unjustly as we believe, the 
imputation most fatal to the character of a soldier. It 
was under the command of a foreign general that the 

30 British had triumphed at Minden and Warburg. The 
people therefore, as was natural, greeted with pride 
and delight a captain of their own, whose native cour- 
age and self-taught skill had placed him on a level with 
the great tacticians of Germany. 

35 The wealth of Clive was such as enabled him to vie 



104 MACAULAY'S ESSAYS 

with the first grandees of England. There remains 
proof that he had remitted more than a hundred and 
eighty thousand pounds through the Dutch East India 
Compan}^, and more than fort}^ thousand pounds 
through the English Company. The amount which he 5 
had sent home through private houses was also con- 
siderable. He had invested great sums in jewels, then 
a very common mode of remittance from India. His 
purchases of diamonds, at Madras alone, amounted to 
twenty-five thousand pounds. Besides a great mass of lo 
ready mone}^, he had his Indian estate, valued by him- 
self at twenty-seven thousand a year. His whole annual 
income, in the opinion of Sir John Malcolm, who is 
desirous to state it as low as possible, exceeded forty 
thousand pounds ; and incomes of forty thousand pounds 15 
at the time of the accession of George the Third were 
at least as rare as incomes of a hundred thousand pounds 
now. We may safely affirm that no Englishman who 
started with nothing has ever, in any line of life, cre- 
ated such a fortune at the early age of thirty-four. 20 

It would be unjust not to add that Clive made a 
creditable use of his riches. As soon as the battle of 
Plassey had laid the foundation of his fortune, he sent 
ten thousand pounds to his sisters, bestowed as much 
more on other poor friends and relations, ordered his 25 
agent to pay eight hundred a year to his parents, and to 
insist that they should keep a carriage, and settled five 
hundred a year on his old commander Lawrence, whose 
means were very slender. The whole sum which Clive 
expended in this manner may be calculated at fifty 30 
thousand pounds. 

• He now set himself to cultivate Parliamentary inter- 
est. His purchases of land seemed to have been made in 
a great measure with that view, and, after the general 
election of 1761, he found himself in the House of Com- 35 



LOED CLIVE 105 

mons, at the head of a body of dependants whose support 
must have been important to any administration. In 
English politics, however, he did not take a prominent 
part. His first attachments, as we have seen, were to 

5 Mr. Fox; at a later period he was attracted by the 
genius and success of Mr. Pitt ; but finally he connected 
himself in the closest manner with George Grenville. 
Early in the session of 1764, when the illegal and im- 
politic persecution of that worthless demagogue Wilkes 

10 had strongly excited the public mind, the town was 
amused by an anecdote, which we have seen in some un- 
published memoirs of Horace AYalpole. Old Mr. Eichard 
Clive, who, since his son's elevation, had been intro- 
duced into society for which his former habits had not 

15 well fitted him, presented himself at the levee. The 
King asked him where Lord Clive was. "He will be 
in town very soon,'' said the old gentleman, loud enough 
to be heard by the whole circle, "and then your Majesty 
will have another vote." 

20 But in truth all Olive's views were directed towards 
the country in which he had so eminently distinguished 
himself as a soldier and a statesman ; and it was by con- 
siderations relating to India that his conduct as a public 
man in England was regulated. The power of the Oom- 

25 pany, though an anomaly, is in our time, we are firmly 
persuaded, a beneficial anomaly. In the time of Olive^ 
it was not merely an anomaly, but a nuisance. There 
w^as no Board of Oontrol. The Directors were for the 
most part mere traders, ignorant of general politics^ 

30 ignorant of the peculiarities of the empire which had 
strangely become subject to them. The Oourt of Pro- 
prietors, wherever it chose to interfere, was able to have 
its way. That Oourt was more numerous, as well as 
more powerful, than at present ; for then every share of 

35 five hundred pounds conferred a vote. The meetings 



IQQ MACAULAY'S ESSAYS 

were large, stormy, even riotous, the debates indecently 
Tirulent. All the turbulence of a Westminster election, 
all the trickery and corruption of a Grampound election, 
disgraced the proceedings of this assembly on questions 
of the most solemn importance. Fictitious votes were 5 
manufactured on a gigantic scale. Clive himself laid 
out a hundred thousand pounds in the purchase of stock, 
which he then divided among nominal proprietors on 
whom he could depend, and whom he brought down in 
his train to every discussion and every ballot. Others 10 
did the same, though not to quite so enormous an extent. 
The interest taken by the public of England in Indian 
questions was then far greater than at jDresent, and the 
reason is obvious. At present a writer enters the service 
young ; he climbs slowly ; he is fortunate if, at forty-five, 15 
he can return to his country with an annuity of a thou- 
sand a year, and with savings amounting to thirty thou- 
sand pounds. A great quantity of wealth is made by 
English functionaries in India; but no single func- 
tionary makes a very large fortune, and what is made is 20 
slowly, hardly, and honestly earned. Only four or five 
high political offices are reserved for public men from 
England. The residencies, the secretaryships, the seats 
in the boards of revenue and in the Sudder courts are all 
filled by men who have given the best jeais of life to 25 
the service of the Company; nor can any talents how- 
ever splendid or any connections however powerful 
obtain those lucrative posts for any person who has not 
entered by the regular door, and mounted by the regular 
gradations. Seventy years ago, less money was brought 30 
home from the East than in our time. But it was 
divided among a very much smaller number of persons, 
and immense sums w^ere often accumulated in a few 
months. Any Englishman, whatever his age might be, 
might hope to be one of the lucky emigrants. If he 35 



LOKD CLIVE 107 

made a good speech in Leadenhall Street, or published 
a clever pamphlet in defence of the chairman, he might 
be sent out in the Company's service, and might return 
in three or four years as rich as Pigot or as Clive. 

5 Thus the India House was a lottery-office, which invited 
everybody to take a chance, and held out ducal fortunes 
as the prizes destined for the lucky few. As soon as it 
was known that there was a part of the world where a 
lieutenant-colonel had one morning received as a present 

10 an estate as large as that of the Earl of Bath or the 
Marquess of Eockingham, and where it seemed that such 
a trifle as ten or twenty thousand pounds was to be had 
by any British functionary for the asking, society began 
to exhibit all the symptoms of the South Sea year, a 

15 feverish excitement, an ungovernable impatience to be 
rich, a contempt for slow, sure, and moderate gains. 

At the head of the preponderating party in the India 
House, had long stood a powerful, able, and ambitious 
director of the name of Sulivan. He had conceived a 

20 strong jealousy of Clive, and remembered with bitter- 
ness the audacity with which the late governor of Bengal 
had repeatedly set at nought the authority of the distant 
Directors of the Company. An apparent reconciliation 
took place after Clive's arrival; but enmity remained 

25 deeply rooted in the hearts of both. The whole body 
of Directors was then chosen annually. At the election 
of 1763, Clive attempted to break down the power of 
the dominant faction. The contest was carried on with 
a violence which he describes as tremendous. Sulivan 

30 was victorious, and hastened to take his revenge. The 
grant of rent which Clive had received from Meer 
Jaffier was, in the opinion of the best English lawyers, 
valid. It had been made by exactly the same authority 
from which the Company had received its chief posses- 

35 sions in Bengal, and the Company had long acquiesced 



108 MACAULAY'S ESSAYS 

in it. The Directors^ however, most unjustly deter- 
mined to confiscate it, and Clive was forced to tile a bill 
in chancery against them. 

But a great and sudden turn in affairs was at hand. 
Every ship from Bengal had for some time brought 5 
alarming tidings. The internal misgovernment of the 
province had reached such a point that it could go no 
further. What, indeed, was to be expected from a body 
of public servants exposed to temptation such that, as 
Clive once said, flesh and blood could not bear it, armed 10 
with irresistible power, and responsible only to the cor- 
rupt, turbulent, distracted, ill-informed Company, situ- 
ated at such a distance that the average interval between 
the sending of a dispatch and the receipt of an answer 
was above a year and a half ? Accordingly, during the 15 
five years which followed the departure of Clive from 
Bengal, the misgovernment of the English was carried 
to a point such as seems hardly compatible with the 
very existence of society. The Eoman proconsul, who, 
in a year or two, squeezed out of a province the means 20 
of rearing marble palaces and baths on the shores of 
Campania, of drinking from amber, of feasting on sing- 
ing birds, of exhibiting armies of gladiators and flocks 
of camelopards; the Spanish viceroy, who, leaving be- 
hind him the curses of Mexico or Lima, entered Madrid 25 
with a long train of gilded coaches, and of sumpter- 
horses trapped and shod with silver, were now outdone. 
Cruelty, indeed, properly so called^ was not among the 
vices of the servants of the Company. But cruelty 
itself could hardly have produced greater evils than so 
sprang from their unprincipled eagerness to be rich. 
They pulled down their creature, Meer Jaffier. They 
set up in his place another Nabob, named Meer Cossim. 
But Meer Cossim had parts and a will; and, though 
sufficiently inclined to oppress his subjects himself, he 35 



LOED CLIVE 109 

could not bear to see them ground to the dust by 
oppressions which yielded him no profit, nay, which 
destroyed his revenue in the very source. The English 
accordingly pulled down Meer Cossim, and set up Meer 

5 Jaffier again ; and Meer Cossim, after revenging himself 
by a massacre surpassing in atrocity that of the Black 
Hole, fled to the dominions of the ISTabob of Oude. At 
every one of these revolutions, the new prince divided 
among his foreign masters whatever could be scraped 

10 together in the treasury of his fallen predecessor. The 
immense population of his dominions was given up as a 
prey to those who had made him a sovereign, and who 
could unmake him. The servants of the Company ob- 
tained, not for their employers, but for themselves, a 

15 monopoly of almost the whole internal trade. They 
forced the natives to buy dear and to sell cheap. They 
insulted with impunity the tribunals, the police, and the 
fiscal authorities of the country. They covered with 
their protection a set of native dependants who ranged 

20 through the provinces, spreading desolation and terror 
wherever they appeared. Every servant of a British 
factor was armed with all the power of his master ; and 
his master was armed with all the power of the Com- 
pany. Enormous fortunes were thus rapidly accumu- 

25 lated at Calcutta, while thirty millions of human beings 
were reduced to the extremity of wretchedness. They 
had been accustomed to live under tyranny, but never 
under tyranny like this. They found the little finger of 
the Company thicker than the loins of Surajah Dowlah. 

30 Under their old masters they had at least one resource : 
when the evil became insupportable, the people rose and 
pulled down the government. But the English govern- 
ment was not to be so shaken off. That government, 
oppressive as the most oppressive form of barbarian 

35 despotism, was strong with all the strength of civiliza- 



IIQ MACAULAY'S ESSAYS 

tion. It resembled the government of evil Genii, rather 
than the government of human tyrants. Even despair 
could not inspire the soft Bengalee with courage to con- 
front men of English breed, the hereditary nobility of 
mankind, whose skill and valour had so often triumphed 5 
in spite of tenfold odds. The unhappy race never at- 
tempted resistance. Sometimes they submitted in 
patient misery. Sometimes they fled from the white 
man, as their fathers had been used to fly from the 
Mahratta ; and the palanquin of the English traveller lo 
was often carried through silent villages and towns 
which the report of his approach had made desolate. 

The foreign lords of Bengal were naturally objects of 
hatred to all the neighbouring powers; and to all the 
haughty race presented a dauntless front. The English 15 
armies, everywhere outnumbered, were everywhere victo- 
rious. A succession of commanders, formed in the 
school of Clive, still maintained the fame of their coun- 
try. "It must be acknowledged,^^ says the Mussulman 
historian of those times, "that this nation's presence of 20 
mind, firmness of temper, and undaunted bravery, are 
past all question. They join the most resolute courage 
to the most cautious prudence; nor have they their 
equals in the art of ranging themselves in battle array 
and fighting in order. If to so many military qualifica- 25 
tions they knew how to join the arts of government, if 
they exerted as much ingenuity and solicitude in reliev- 
ing the people of God, as they do in whatever concerns 
their military afi^airs, no nation in the world would be 
preferable to them, or worthier of command. But the 30 
people under their dominion groan everywhere, and are 
reduced to poverty and distress. Oh God ! come to the 
assistance of thine afflicted servants, and deliver them 
from the oppressions which they suffer." 

It was impossible, however, that even the military 85 



LOED CLIVE 111 

establishment should long continue exempt from the 
vices which pervaded every other part of the govern- 
ment. Eapacity, luxury, and the spirit of insubordina- 
tion spread from the civil service to the officers of the 

5 army, and from the officers to the soldiers. The evil 
continued to grow till every mess-room became the seat 
of conspiracy and cabal, and till the sepoys could be 
kept in order only by wholesale executions. 

At length the state of things in Bengal began to excite 

10 uneasiness at home. A succession of revolutions ; a dis- 
organised administration; the natives pillaged, yet the 
Company not enriched; every fleet bringing back for- 
tunate adventurers who were able to purchase manors 
and to build stately dwellings, yet bringing back also 

15 alarming accounts of the financial prospects of the gov- 
ernment ; war on the frontiers ; disaffection in the army ; 
the national character disgraced by excesses resembling 
those of Yerres and Pizarro; such was the spectacle 
which disma3^ed those who were conversant with Indian 

20 affairs. The general cry was that Clive, and Clive alone, 
could save the empire which he had founded. 

This feeling manifested itself in the strongest manner 
at a very full General Court' of Proprietors. Men of all 
parties, forgetting their feuds and trembling for their 

25 dividends, exclaimed that Clive was the man whom the 
crisis required, that the oppressive proceedings which 
had been adopted respecting his estate ought to be 
dropped, and that he ought to be entreated to return to 
India. 

30 Clive rose. As to his estate, he said, he would make 
such propositions to the Directors, as would, he trusted, 
lead to an amicable settlement. But there was a still 
greater difficulty. It was proper to tell them that he 
never would undertake the government of Bengal while 

35 his enemy Sulivan was chairman of the Company. The 



]^12 MACAULAY'S ESSAYS 

tumult was violent. Sulivan could scarcely obtain a 
hearing. An overwhelming majority of the assembly 
was on Olive's side. Sulivan wished to try the result of 
a ballot. But, according to the bye-laws of the Com- 
pany, there can be no ballot except on a requisition 5 
signed by nine proprietors; and, though hundreds were 
present, nine persons could not be found to set their 
hands to such a requisition. 

Clive was in consequence nominated Governor and 
Commander-in-chief of the British possessions in Ben- lo 
gal. But he adhered to his declaration, and refused to 
enter on his office till the event of the next election of 
Directors should be known. The contest was obstinate ; 
but Clive triumphed. Sulivan, lately absolute master of 
the India House, was within a vote of losing his own 15 
seat ; and both the chairman and deputy-chairman were 
friends of the new governor. 

Such were the circumstances under which Lord Clive 
sailed for the third and last time to India. In May, 
1765, he reached Calcutta; and he found the whole 20 
machine of government even more fearfully disorganised 
than he had anticipated. Meer Jaffier, who had some 
time before lost his eldest son Meeran, had died while 
Clive was on his voyage out. The English functionaries 
at Calcutta had already received from home strict 25 
orders not to accept presents from the native princes. 
But, eager for gain, and unaccustomed to respect the 
commands of their distant, ignorant, and negligent mas- 
ters, they again set up the throne of Bengal to sale. 
About one hundred and forty thousand pounds sterling 30 
was distributed among nine of the most powerful ser- 
vants of the Company; and, in consideration of this 
bribe, an infant son of the deceased N"abob was placed 
on the seat of his father. The news of the ignominious 
bargain met Clive on his arrival. In a private letter, 35 



LOED CLIVE 113 

written immediately after his landing, to an intimate 
friend, he poured out his feelings in language, which, 
proceeding from a man of so daring, so resolute, and so 
little given to theatrical display of sentiment, seems to 
5 us singularly touching. "Alas V he says, "how is the 
English name sunk ! I could not avoid paying the 
tribute of a few tears to the departed and lost fame of 
the British nation — irrevocably so, I fear. However, I 
do declare, by that great Being who is the searcher of 

10 all hearts, and to whom we must be accountable if there 

be a hereafter, that I am come out with a mind superior 

to all corruption, and that I am determined to destroy 

these great and growing evils, or perish in the attempt.'^ 

The Council met, and Clive stated to them his full 

15 determination to make a thorough reform, and to use for 
that purpose the whole of the ample authority, civil and 
military, which had been confided to him. Johnstone, 
one of the boldest and worst men in the assembly, made 
some show of opposition. Clive interrupted him, and 

20 haughtily demanded whether he meant to question the 
power of the new government. Johnstone was cowed; 
and disclaimed any such intention. All the faces round 
the board grew long and pale ; and not another syllable 
of dissent was uttered. 

25 Clive redeemed his pledge. He remained in India 
about a year and a half ; and in that short time effected 
one of the most extensive, difficult, and salutary reforms 
that ever was accomplished by any statesman. This was 
the part of his life on which he afterwards looked back 

30 with most pride. He had it in his power to triple his 
already splendid fortune ; to connive at abuses while pre- 
tending to remove them; to conciliate the goodwill of 
all the English in Bengal, by giving up to their rapacity 
a helpless and timid race, who knew not where lay the 

35 island which sent forth their oppressors, and whose 



114 MACAULAY'S ESSAYS 

complaints had little chance of being heard across 
fifteen thousand miles of ocean. He knew that if he 
applied himself in earnest to the work of reformation, 
he should raise every bad passion in arms against him. 
He knew how unscrupulous, how implacable, would be 5 
the hatred of those ravenous adventurers who, having 
counted on accumulating in a few months fortunes suffi- 
cient to support- peerages, should find all their hopes 
frustrated. But he had chosen the good part; and he 
called up all the force of his mind for a battle far lo 
harder than that of Plassey. At first success seemed 
hopeless ; but soon all obstacles began to bend before that 
iron courage and that vehement will. The receiving of 
presents from the natives was rigidly prohibited. The 
private trade of the servants of the Company was put 15 
down. The whole settlement seemed to be set, as one 
man, against these measures. But the inexorable gov- 
ernor declared that, if he could not find support at 
Fort William, he would procure it elsewhere, and sent 
for some civil servants from Madras to assist him in 20 
carrying on the administration. The most factious of 
his opponents he turned out of their offices. The rest 
submitted to what was inevitable; and in a very short 
time all resistance was quelled. 

But Clive was far too wise a man not to see that the 25 
recent abuses were partly to be ascribed .to a cause which 
could not fail to produce similar abuses, as soon as 
the pressure of his strong hand was withdrawn. The 
Company had followed a mistaken policy with respect 
to the remuneration of its servants. The salaries were 30 
too low to afford even those indulgences which are neces- 
sary to the health and comfort of Europeans in a 
tropical climate. To lay by a rupee from such scanty 
pay was impossible. It could not be supposed that men 
of even average abilities would consent to pass the best 35 



LOED CLIVE 115 

years of life in exile, under a burning sun, for no other 
consideration than these stinted wages. It had accord- 
ingly been understood, from a very early period, that 
the Company's agents were at liberty to enrich them- 

5 selves by their private trade. This practice had been 
seriously injurious to the commercial interests of the cor- 
poration. That very intelligent observer. Sir Thomas 
Eoe, in the reign of James the First, strongly urged the 
Directors to apply a remedy to the abuse. "Absolutely 

10 prohibit the private trade," said he ; "for your business 
will be better done. I know this is harsh. Men pro- 
fess they come not for bare wages. But you will take 
away this plea if you give great w^ages to their content ; 
and then you know what you part from." 

15 In spite of this excellent advice, the Company adhered 
to the old system, paid low salaries, and connived at the 
indirect gains of the agents. The pay of a member of 
the Council was only three hundred pounds a year. Yet 
it was notorious that such a functionary could not live 

20 in India for less than ten times that sum ; and it could 
not be expected that he would be content to live even 
handsomely in India without laying up something 
against the time of his return to England. This system, 
before the conquest of Bengal, might affect the amount of 

25 the dividends payable to the proprietors, but could do 
little harm in any other way. But the Company was 
now a ruling bod}^ Its servants might still be called 
factors, junior merchants, senior merchants. But they 
were in truth proconsuls, propraetors, procurators, of 

30 extensive regions. They had immense power. Their 
regular pay was universally admitted to be insufficient. 
They were, by the ancient usage of the service, and by 
the implied permission of their employers, warranted in 
enriching themselves by indirect means; and this had 

35 been the origin of their frightful oppression and cor- 



116 MACAULAY'S ESSAYS 

ruption which had desolated Bengal. Cliye saw clearly 
that it was absurd to give men power, and to require 
them to live in penury. He justly concluded that no 
reform could be effectual which should not be coupled 
with a plan for liberally remunerating the civil servants 5 
of the Company. The Directors, he knew, were not dis- 
posed to sanction any increase of the salaries out of their 
own treasury. The only course which remained open 
to the governor was one which exposed him to much mis- 
representation, but which we think him fully justified lo 
in adopting. He appropriated to the support of the 
service the monopoly of salt, which has formed, down 
to our own time, a principal head of Indian revenue; 
and he divided the proceeds according to a scale which 
seems to have been not unreasonably fixed. He was in lb 
consequence accused by his enemies, and has been ac- 
cused by historians, of disobeying his instructions, of 
violating his promises, of authorising that very abuse 
which it was his special mission to destroy, namely, the 
trade of the Company's servants. But every discerning 20 
and impartial judge will admit, that there was really 
nothing in common between the system which he set up 
and that which he was sent to destroy. The monopoly 
of salt had been a source of revenue to the Government 
of India before Clive was born. It continued to be so 25 
long after his death. The civil servants were clearly 
entitled to a maintenance out of the revenue; and all 
that Clive did was to charge a particular portion of the 
revenue with their maintenance. He thus, while he put 
an end to the practices by which gigantic fortunes had 30 
been rapidly accumulated, gave to every British func- 
tionary employed in the East the means of slowly, but 
surely, acquiring a competence. Yet, such is the injus- 
tice of mankind, that none of those acts which are the 
real stains of his life has drawn on him so much obloquy 35 



LOED CLIYE 117 

as this measure, which was in truth a reform necessary 
to the success of all his other reforms. 

He had quelled the opposition of the civil servants: 
that of the army was more formidable. Some of the 
5 retrenchments which had been ordered by the Directors 
affected the interests of the military service; and a 
storm arose, such as even Csesar would not willingly 
have faced. It was no light thing to encounter the 
resistance of those who held the power of the sword, 

10 in a country governed only by the sword. Two hundred 
English officers engaged in a conspiracy against the gov- 
ernment, and determined to resign their commissions on 
the same day, not doubting that Clive would grant any 
terms, rather than see the army, on which alone the 

15 British empire in the East rested, left without com- 
manders. They little knew the imconquerable spirit 
with which they had to deal. Clive had still a few 
officers round his person on whom he could rely. He 
sent to Fort St. George for a fresh supply. He gave 

20 commissions even to mercantile agents who were dis- 
posed to support him at this crisis; and he sent orders 
that every officer who resigned should be instantly 
brought up to Calcutta. The conspirators found that 
they had miscalculated. The governor was inexorable. 

25 The troops were steady. The sepoys, over whom Clive 
had always possessed extraordinary influence, stood by 
him with unshaken fidelity. The leaders in the plot 
were arrested, tried, and cashiered. The rest, humbled 
and dispirited, begged to be permitted to withdraw their 

30 resignations. Many of them declared their repentance 
even with tears. The younger offenders Clive treated 
with lenity. To the ringleaders he was inflexibly severe ; 
but his severity was pure from all taint of private malev- 
olence. 'While he sternly upheld the just authority of 

35 his office, he passed by personal insults and injuries with 



118 MACAULAY'S ESSAYS 

magnanimous disdain. One of the conspirators was ac- 
cused of having planned the assassination of the gov- 
ernor; but Clive would not listen to the charge. "The 
officers/^ he said^ "are Englishmen, not assassins." 

While he reformed the civil service and established his 5 
authority over the army, he was equally successful in 
his foreign policy. His landing on Indian ground was 
the signal for immediate peace. The ISTabob of Oude, 
with a large army, lay at that time on the frontier of 
Bahar. He had been joined by many Afghans and Mah- 10 
rattas, and there was no small reason to expect a general 
coalition of all the native powers against the English. 
But the name of Clive quelled in an instant all opposi- 
tion. The enemy implored peace in the humblest lan- 
guage, and submitted to such terms as the new governor 15 
chose to dictate. 

At the same time, the Government of Bengal was 
placed on a new footing. The power of the English in 
that province had hitherto been altogether undefined. 
It was unknown to the ancient constitution of the em- 20 
pire, and it had been ascertained by no compact. It 
resembled the power which, in the last decrepitude of 
the Western Empire, was exercised over Italy by the 
great chiefs of foreign mercenaries, the Eicimers and 
the Odoacers, who put up and pulled down at their 25 
pleasure a succession of insignificant princes, dignified 
with the names of Caesar and Augustus. But as in 
Italy, so in India, the warlike strangers at length found 
it expedient to give to a domination which had been 
established by arms the sanction of law and ancient pre- 30 
scription. Theodoric thought it politic to obtain from 
the distant Court of Byzantium a commission appoint- 
ing him ruler of Italy ; and Clive, in the same manner, 
applied to the Court of Delhi for a formal grant of the 
powers of which he alread}^ possessed the reality. The 35 



LOED CIJVE 119 

Mogul was absolutely helpless; and, though he mur- 
mured, had reason to be well pleased that the English 
were disposed to give solid rupees, which he never could 
have extorted from them, in exchange for a few Persian 

5 characters which cost him nothing. A bargain was 
speedily struck; and the titular sovereign of Hindostan 
issued a warrant, empowering the Company to collect 
and administer the revenues of Bengal, Orissa, and 
Bahar. 

10 There was still a Nabob, who stood to the British 
authorities in the same relation in which the last 
drivelling Chilperics and Childerics of the Merovingian 
line stood to their able and vigorous Mayors of the 
Palace, to Charles Martel, and to Pepin. At one time 

15 Clive had almost made up his mind to discard this phan- 
tom altogether ; but he afterwards thought that it might 
be convenient still to use the name of the Nabob, par- 
ticularly in dealings with other European nations. The 
French, the Dutch, and the Danes, would, he conceived, 

20 submit far more readily to the authority of the native 
Prince, whom they had always been accustomed to 
respect, than to that of a rival trading corporation. This 
policy may, at that time, have been judicious. But the 
pretence was soon found to be too flimsy to impose on 

25 anybody ; and it was altogether laid aside. The heir of 
Meer Jaffier still resides at Moorshedabad, the ancient 
capital of his house, still bears the title of Nabob, is still 
accosted by the English as "Your Highness,^' and is still 
suffered to retain a portion of the regal state which 

30 surrounded his ancestors. A pension of a hundred and 
sixty thousand pounds a year is annually paid to him by 
the government. His carriage is surrounded by guards, 
and preceded by attendants with silver maces. His per- 
son and his dwellings are exempted from the ordinary 

35 authority of the ministers of justice. But he has not 



120 MACAULAY'S ESSAYS 

the smallest share of political power, and is, in fact, only 
a noble and wealthy subject of the Company. 

It would have been easy for Clive, during his second 
administration in Bengal, to accumulate riches such as 
no subject in Europe possessed. He might, indeed, 5 
without subjecting the rich inhabitants -of the province 
to any pressure beyond that to which their mildest 
rulers had accustomed them, have received presents to 
the amount of .three hundred thousand pounds a year. 
The neighbouring princes would gladly have paid any lo 
price for his favour. But he appears to have strictly 
adhered to the rules which he had laid down for the 
guidance of others. The Eajah of Benares offered him 
diamonds of great value. The Xabob of Oude pressed 
him to accept a large sum of money and a casket of 15 
costly jewels. Clive courteously, but peremptorily re- 
fused ; and it should be observed that he made no merit 
of his refusal, and that the facts did not come to light 
till after his death. He kept an exact account of his 
salary, of his share of the profits accruing from the 20 
trade in salt, and of those presents which, according to 
the fashion of the East, it would be churlish to refuse. 
Out of the sum arising from these resources, he defrayed 
the expenses of his situation. The surplus he divided 
among a few attached friends who had accompanied him 25 
to India. He always boasted, and as far as we can 
judge, he boasted with truth, that this last administra- 
tion diminished instead of increasing his fortune. 

One large sum indeed he accepted. Meer Jaffier had 
left him by will about sixty thousand pounds sterling 30 
in specie and jewels : and the rules which had been 
recently laid down extended only to presents from the 
living, and did not affect legacies from the dead. Clive 
took the money, but not for himself. He made the 
whole over to the Company, in trust for officers and sol- 35 



LOED CLIVE 121 

diers invalided in their service. The fund which still" 
bears his name owes its origin to this princely donation. 
After a stay of eighteen months, the state of his health 
made it necessary for him to return to Europe. At the 
5 close of January, 1767, he quitted for the last time the 
country, on whose destinies he had exercised so mighty 
an influence. 

His second return from Bengal was not, like his first, 
greeted by the acclamations of his countrymen. Numer- 

10 ous causes were already at work which embittered the 
remaining years of his life, and hurried him to an 
untimely grave. His old enemies at the India House 
were still powerful and active ; and they had been rein- 
forced by a large band of allies whose violence far 

15 exceeded their own. The whole crew of pilferers and 
oppressors from whom he had rescued Bengal persecuted 
him with the implacable rancour which belongs to such 
abject natures. Many of them even invested their 
property in India stock, merely that they might be better 

20 able to annoy the man whose firmness had set bounds to 
their rapacity. Lying newspapers were set up for no 
purpose but to abuse him; and the temper of the 
public mind was then such, that these arts, which under 
ordinary circumstances would have been ineffectual 

25 against truth and merit, produced an extraordinary im- 
pression. 

The great events which had taken place in India had 
called into existence a new class of Englishmen, to 
w^hom their countrymen gave the name of jN'abobs. These 

30 persons had generally sprung from families neither an- 
cient nor opulent; they had generally been sent at an 
early age to the East ; and they had there acquired large 
fortunes, which they had brought back to their native 
land. It was natural that, not having had much oppor- 

35 tunity of mixing with the best society, they should 



122 MACAULAY'S ESSAYS 

exhibit some of the awkwardness and some of the pom- 
posity of upstarts. It was natural that, during their 
sojourn in Asia, they should have acquired some tastes 
and habits surprising, if not disgusting, to persons who 
never had quitted Europe. It was natural that, having 5 
enjo3^ed great consideration in the East, they should not 
be disposed to sink into obscurity at home; and as they 
had money, and had not birth or high connection, it was 
natural that they should display a little obtrusively the 
single advantage which they possessed. Wherever they 10 
settled there was a kind of feud between them and the 
old nobility and gentry, similar to that which raged in 
Erance between the farmer-general and the marquess. 
This enmity to the aristocracy long continued to dis- 
tinguish the servants of the Company. More than 15 
twenty years after the time of which we are now speak- 
ing, Burke pronounced that among the Jacobins might 
be reckoned "the East Indians almost to a man, who 
cannot bear to find that their present importance does 
not bear a proportion to their wealth.^^ 20 

The Nabobs soon became a most unpopular class of 
men. Some of them had in the East displayed eminent 
talents, and rendered great services to the state; but at 
home their talents were not shown to advantage, and 
their services were little known. That they had sprung 25 
from "obscurity, that they had acquired great wealth, 
that they exhibited it insolently, that they spent it ex- 
travagantly, that they raised the price of everything in 
their neighbourhood, from fresh eggs to rotten boroughs, 
that their liveries outshone those of dukes, that their 30 
coaches were finer than that of the Lord Mayor, that the 
examples of their large and ill-governed households cor- 
rupted half the servants in the country, that some of 
them, with all their magnificence, could not catch the 
tone of good society, but, in spite of the stud and the 35 



LOED CLIVE 123 

crowd of menials, of the jDlate and the Dresden china, 
of the venison and the Burgundy, were still low men; 
these were things which excited, both in the class from 
which they sprung and in the class into which they at- 
5 tempted to force themselves, the bitter aversion which is 
the effect of mingled envy and contempt. But when it 
was also rumoured that the fortune which had enabled 
its possessor to eclipse the Lord Lieutenant on the race- 
ground, or to carry the county against the head of a 

10 house as old as Domesday Book, had been accumulated 
by violating public faith, by deposing legitimate princes, 
by reducing whole j^rovinces to beggary, all the higher 
and better as well as all the low and evil parts of human 
nature were stirred against the wretch who had obtained 

15 by guilt and dishonour the riches which he now lavished 
with arrogant and inelegant profusion. The unfortu- 
nate Xabob seemed to be made up of those foibles against 
which comedy has pointed the most merciless ridicule, 
and of those crimes which have thrown the deepest gloom 

20 over traged}^ of Turcaret and [N'ero, of Monsieur Jour- 
dain and Eichard the Third. A tempest of execration 
and derision, such as can be compared only to that out- 
break of public feeling against the Puritans which took 
place at the time of the Eestoration, burst on the servants 

25 of the Company. The humane man was horror-struck 
at the way in which they had got their money, the 
thrifty man at the way in which they spent it. The 
Dilettante sneered, at their want of taste. The Macca- 
roni black-balled them as vulgar fellows. Writers the 

30 most unlike in sentiment and style, Methodists and lib- 
ertines, philosophers and buffoons, were for once on the 
same side. It is hardly too much to say that, during a 
space of about thirty years, the whole lighter literature 
of England was coloured by the feelings which we have 

35 described. Foote brought on the stage an Anglo-Indian 



124 MACAULAY 'S ESSAYS 

chief, dissolute, ungenerous, and tyrannical, ashamed of 
the humble friends of his youth, hating the aristocracy, 
yet childishly eager to be numbered among them, squan- 
dering his wealth on pandars and flatterers, tricking out 
his chairmen with the most costly hot-house flowers, and 5 
astounding the ignorant with jargon about rupees, lacs, 
and jaghires. Mackenzie, with more delicate humour, 
depicted a plain country family raised by the Indian 
acquisitions of one of its meml^ers to sudden opulence, 
and exciting derision by an awkward mimicry of the 10 
manners of the great. Cowper, in that lofty expostula- 
tion which gJows with the very spirit of the Hebrew 
poets, placed the oppression of India foremost in the list 
of those national crimes for which God had punished 
England with years of disastrous war, with discomfiture 15 
in her own seas, and with the loss of her transatlantic 
empire. If any of our readers will take the trouble to 
search in the dusty recesses of circulating libraries for 
some novel published sixty years ago, the chance is that 
the villain or sub-villain of the story will prove to be 20 
a savage old Xabob, with an immense fortune, a tawny 
complexion, a bad liver, and a worse heart. 

Such, as far as we can now judge, was the feeling of 
the country respecting Nabobs in general. And Clive 
was eminently the Nabob, the ablest, the most celebrated, 25 
the highest in rank, the highest in fortune, of all the 
fraternity. His wealth was exhibited in a manner 
which could not fail to excite odium. He lived with 
great magnificence in Berkeley Square. He reared one 
palace in Shropshire and another at Claremont. His 30 
parliamentary influence might vie with that of the great- 
est families. But in all this splendour and power envy 
found something to sneer at. On some of his relations 
wealth and dignity seem to have sat as awkwardly as on 
Mackenzie's Margery Mushroom. Nor was he himself, 35 



LOED CLIVE 125 

with all his great qualities, free from those weaknesses 
which the satirists of that age represented as character- 

5 istic of his whole class. In the field, indeed, his habits 
were remarkably simple. He was constantly on horse- 
back, was never seen but in his uniform, never wore silk, 
never entered a palanquin, and was content with the 
plainest fare. But when he was no longer at the head 
of an army, he laid aside this Spartan temperance for 
the ostentatious luxury of a Sybarite. Though his per- 

10 son was ungraceful, and though his harsh features were 
redeemed from vulgar ugliness only by their stern, 
dauntless, and commanding expression, he was fond of 
rich and gay clothing, and replenished his wardrobe with 
absurd profusion. Sir John Malcolm gives us a letter 

15 worthy of Sir Matthew Mite, in which Clive orders "two 
hundred shirts, the best and finest that can be got for 
love or money." A few follies of this description, 
grossly exaggerated by report, produced an unfavourable 
impression on the public mind. But this was not the 

20 worst. Black stories, of which the greater part were 
pure inventions, were circulated touching his conduct in 
the East. He had to bear the whole odium, not only of 
those bad acts to which he had once or twice stooped, but 
of all the bad acts of all the English in India, of bad 

25 acts committed when he was absent, nay, of bad acts 
which he had manfully opposed and severely punished. 
The very abuses against which he had waged an honest, 
resolute, and successful war were laid to his account. 
He was, in fact, regarded as the personification of all 

30 the vices and weaknesses which the public, with or with- 
out reason, ascribed to the English adventurers in Asia. 
We have ourselves heard old men, who knew nothing of 
his history, but who still retained the prejudices con- 
ceived in their youth, talk of him as an incarnate fiend. 

35 Johnson always held this language. BrowTi, whom 



126 MACAULAY'S ESSAYS 

Clive employed to lay out his pleasure grounds, was 
amazed to see in the honse of his noble employer a chest 
which had once been filled with gold from the treasury 
of Moorshedabad, and could not understand how the 
conscience of the criminal could suffer him to sleep with 5 
such an object so near to his bedchamber. The peas- 
antry of Surrey looked with mysterious horror on the 
stately house which was rising at Claremont, and whis- 
pered that the great wicked lord had ordered the walls 
to be made so thick in order to keep out the devil, who lo 
would one day carry him away bodily. Among the 
gaping clowns who drank in this frightful story was a 
worthless ugly lad of the name of Hunt, since widely 
known as William Huntington, S.S.; and the supersti- 
tion which was strangely mingled with the knavery of 15 
that remarkable impostor seems to have derived no small 
nutriment from the tales which he heard of the life and 
character of Clive. 

In the meantime, the impulse which Clive had given 
to the administration of Bengal was constantly becoming 2a 
fainter and fainter. His policy was to a great extent 
abandoned; the abuses which he had suppressed began 
to revive; and at length the evils which a bad govern- 
ment had engendered were aggravated by one of those 
fearful visitations which the best government cannot 25 
avert. In the summer of 1770, the rains failed; the 
earth was parched up ; the tanks were empty ; the rivers 
shrank within their beds; and a famine, such as is 
known only in countries where every household depends 
for support on its own little patch of cultivation, filled 30 
the whole valley of the Ganges with misery and death. 
Tender and delicate women, whose veils had never been 
lifted before the public gaze, came forth from the 
inner chambers in which Eastern jealousy had kept 
watch over their beauty, threw themselves on the earth 35 



LOED CLIVE 127 

before the passers-by, and, with loud wailings, implored 
a handful of rice for their children. The Hoogley every 
day rolled down thousands of corpses close to the porti- 
coes and gardens of the English conquerors. The very 

5 streets of Calcutta were blocked up by the d3dng and the 
dead. The lean and feeble survivors had not energy 
enough to bear the bodies of their kindred to the funeral 
pile or to the holy river, or even to scare away the 
jackals and vidtures, who fed on human remains in the 

10 face of day. The extent of the mortality was never 
ascertained; but it was popularly reckoned by millions. 
This melancholy intelligence added to the excitement 
which already prevailed in England on Indian subjects. 
The proprietors of East India stock were uneasy about 

15 their dividends. All men of common humanity were 
touched by the calamities of our unhappy subjects ; and 
indignation soon began to mingle itself with pity. It 
was rumoured that the Company's servants had created 
the famine by engrossing all the rice of the country; 

20 that they had sold grain for eight, ten, twelve times the 
price at which they had bought it; that one English 
functionary who, the year before, was not w^orth a hun- 
dred guineas, had, during that season of misery remitted 
sixty thousand pounds to London. These charges we 

25 believe to have been unfounded. That servants of the 
Company had ventured, since Clive's departure, to deal 
in rice, is probable. That, if they dealt in rice, they 
must have gained by the scarcity, is certain. But there 
is no reason for thinking that they either produced or 

30 aggravated an evil which physical causes sufficiently ex- 
plain. The outcry which was raised against them on 
this occasion was, we suspect, as absurd as the imputa- 
tions which, in times of dearth at home, were once thrown 
by statesmen and judges, and are still thrown by two or 

35 three old women, on the corn factors. It was, however. 



128 MACAULAY'S ESSAYS 

SO loud and so general tliat it appears to have imposed 
even on an intellect raised so high above vulgar preju- 
dices as that of Adam Smith. What was still more 
extraordinary, these unhappy events greatly increased 
the unpopularity of Lord Clive. He had been some years 5 
in England when the famine took place. None of his 
acts had the smallest tendency to produce such a calam- 
ity. If the servants of the Company had traded in rice, 
they had done so in direct contravention of the rule 
which he had laid down, and, while in power, had reso- 10 
lutely enforced. But, in the eyes of his countrymen, he 
was, as we have said, the Nabob, the Anglo-Indian char- 
acter personified; and, while he was building and plant- 
ing in Surrey, he was held responsible for all the effects 
of a dry season in Bengal. 15 

Parliament had hitherto bestowed very little attention 
on our Eastern possessions. Since the death of George 
the Second, a rapid succession of weak administrations, 
each of which was in turn flattered and betrayed by the 
Court, had held the semblance of power. Intrigues in 20 
the palace, riots in the capital, and insurrectionary 
movements in the American colonies, had left the ad- 
visers of the Crown little leisure to study Indian politics. 
A^Tien they did interfere, their interference was feeble 
and irresolute. Lord Chatham, indeed, during the short 25 
period of his ascendency in the councils of George the 
Third, had meditated a bold attack on the Company. 
But his plans were rendered abortive by the strange 
malady which about that time began to overcloud his 
splendid genius. 30 

At length, in 1772, it was generally felt that Parlia- 
ment could no longer neglect the affairs of India. The 
Government was stronger than any which had held 
power since the breach between Mr. Pitt and the great 
Whig connection in 1761. No pressing question of 35 



LOED CLIVE 129 

domestic or European policy required tlie attention of 
public men. There was a short and delusive lull be- 
tween two tempests. The excitement produced by the 
Middlesex election was over ; the discontents of America 
5 did not yet threaten civil war ; the financial difficulties 
of the Company brought on a crisis ; the Ministers were 
forced to take up the subject; and the whole storm, 
which had long been gathering, now broke at once on the 
head of Clive. 

10 His situation was indeed singularly unfortunate. He 
was hated throughout the country, hated at the India 
House, hated, above all, by those wealthy and powerful 
servants of the Company, whose rapacity and tyranny 
he had withstood. He had to bear the double odium of 

15 his bad and of his good actions, of every Indian abuse 
and of every Indian reform. The state of the political 
world was such that he could count on the support of no 
powerful connection. The party to which he had be- 
longed, that of George Grenville, had been hostile to the 

20 Government, and yet had never cordially united with the 
other sections of the Opposition, with the little band 
which still followed the fortunes of Lord Chatham, or 
with the large and respectable body of which Lord 
Rockingham was the acknowledged leader. George 

25 Grenville was now dead : his followers were scattered ; 
and Clive, unconnected with any of the powerful fac- 
tions which divided the Parliament, could reckon only 
on the votes of those members who were returned by 
himself. His enemies, particularly those who were the 

30 enemies of his virtues, were unscrupulous, ferocious, im- 
placable. Their malevolence aimed at nothing less than 
the utter ruin of his fame and fortune. They wished 
to see him expelled from Parliament, to see his spurs 
chopped off, to see his estate confiscated; and it may be 



130 MACAULAY'S ESSAYS 

doubted wlietlier even such a result as this would have 
quenched their thirst for revenge. 

Clivers parliamentary tactics resembled his military 
tactics. Deserted, surrounded, outnumbered, and with 
everything at stake, he did not even deign to stand on 5 
the defensive, but pushed boldly forward to the attack. 
At an early stage of the discussions on Indian affairs 
he rose, and in a long and elaborate speech vindicated 
himself from a large part of the accusations which had 
been brought against him* He is said to have produced 10 
a great impression on his audience. Lord Chatham, 
who, now the ghost of his former self, loved to haunt 
the scene of his glory, was that night under the gallery 
of the House of Commons, and declared that he had 
never heard a finer speech. It was subsequently printed 15 
under Clive's direction, and, when the fullest allow- 
ance has been made for the assistance which he may 
have obtained from literary friends, proves him to have 
possessed, not merely strong sense and a manly spirit, 
but talents both for disquisition and declamation which 20 
assiduous culture might have improved into the high- 
est excellence. He confined his defence on this occa- 
sion to the measures of his last administration, and suc- 
ceeded so far that his enemies thenceforth thought it 
expedient to direct their attacks chiefly against the 25 
earlier part of his life. 

The earlier part of his life unfortunately presented 
some assailable points to their hostility. A committee 
was chosen by ballot to inquire into the affairs of India ; 
and by this committee the whole history of that great 30 
revolution which threw down Surajah Dowlah and raised 
Meer Jaffier was sifted with malignant care. Clive was 
subjected to the most unsparing examination and cross- 
examination, and afterwards bitterly complained that 
he, the Baron of Plassey, had been treated like a sheep- 35 



LOED CLIVE 131 

stealer. The boldness and ingenuousness of his replies 
would alone suffice to show how alien from his nature 
were the frauds to which, in the course of his Eastern 
negotiations, he had sometimes descended. He avowed 

5 the arts which he had employed to deceive Omichund, 
and resolutely said that he was not ashamed of them, 
and that, in the same circumstances, he would again 
act in the same manner. He admitted that he had re- 
ceived immense sums from Meer Jaffier; but he denied 

10 that, in doing so, he had violated any obligation of 
morality or honour. He laid claim, on the contrary^ 
and not without some reason, to the praise of eminent 
disinterestedness. He described in vivid language the 
situation in which his victory had placed him: great 

15 princes dependent on his pleasure ; an opulent city afraid 
of being given up to plunder; wealthy bankers bid- 
ding against each other for his smiles ; vaults piled with 
gold and jewels thrown open to him alone. ^^By God^ 
Mr. Chairman,'^ he exclaimed, "at this moment I stand 

20 astonished at my own moderation.'^ 

The inquiry was so extensive that the Houses rose 
before it had been completed. It was continued in the 
following session. When at length the committee had 
concluded its labours, enlightened and impartial men 

25 had little difficulty in making up their minds as to the 
result. It was clear that Clive had been gnilty of some 
acts which it is impossible to vindicate without attack- 
ing the authority of all the most sacred laws which 
regulate the intercourse of individuals and of states, 

30 But it was equally clear that he had displayed great 
talents, and even great virtues; that he had rendered 
eminent services both to his country and to the people 
of India; and that it was in truth not for his dealings 
with Meer Jaffier, nor for the fraud which he had prac- 



X32 MACAULAY'S ESSAYS 

tised on Omichund, but for his determined resistance to 
avarice and tyranny, that he was now called in question. 

Ordinary criminal justice knows nothing of set-off. 
The greatest desert cannot be pleaded in answer to a 
charge of the slightest transgression. If a man has 5 
sold beer on a Sunday morning, it is no defence that 
he has saved the life of a fellow-creature at the risk of 
his own. If he has harnessed a Newfoundland dog to 
his little child's carriage, it is no defence that he was 
wounded at Waterloo. But it is not in this way that lo 
we ought to deal with men who, raised far above ordi- 
nary restraints, and tried by far more than ordinary 
temptations, are entitled to a more than ordinary meas- 
ure of indulgence. Such men should be judged by their 
contemporaries as they will be judged by posterity. 15 
Their bad actions ought not indeed to be called good; 
but their good and bad actions ought to be fairly 
weighed; and if on the whole the good preponderate, 
the sentence ought to be one, not merely of acquittal, 
but of approbation. Not a single great ruler in history 20 
can be absolved by a judge who fixes his eye inexorably 
on one or two unjustifiable acts. Bruce the deliverer 
of Scotland, Maurice the deliverer of Germany, William 
the deliverer of Holland, his great descendant the de- 
liverer of England, Murray the good regent, Cosmo the 25 
father of his country, Henry the Fourth of France, 
Peter the Great of Eussia, how would the best of them 
pass such a scrutiny? History takes wider views; and 
the best tribunal for great political cases is the tribunal 
which anticipates the verdict of history. 30 

Eeasonable and moderate men of all parties felt this 
in .dive's case. They could not pronounce him blame- 
less; but they were not disposed to abandon him to 
that low-minded and rancorous pack who had run him 
down and were eager to worry him to death. Lord 25 



LOED CLIVE 133 

North, though not very friendly to him, was not dis- 
posed to go to extremities against him. While the in- 
quiry was still in progress, Clive, who had some years 
before been created a Knight of the Bath, was installed 

5 with great pomp in Henry the Seventh's Chapel. He 
was soon after appointed Lord Lieutenant of Shrop- 
shire. When he kissed hands, ' George the "Third, who 
had alwaj^s been partial to him, admitted him to a pri- 
vate audience, talked to him half an hour on Indian 

10 politics, and was visibly affected when the persecuted 
general spoke of his services and of the way in which 
they had been requited. 

At length the charges came in a definite foiTa before 
the House of Commons. Burgoyne, chairman of the 

15 committee, a man of wit, fashion, and honour, an agree- 
able dramatic writer, an officer whose courage was never 
questioned, and whose skill was at that time highly 
esteemed, appeared as the accuser. The members of 
the administration took different sides; for in that age 

20 all questions were open questions, except such as were 
brought forward by the government, or such as implied 
censure on the Government. Thurlow, the Attorney- 
General, was among the assailants. Wedderburne, the 
Solicitor-General, strongly attached to Clive, defended 

25 his friend with extraordinary force of argument and 
language. It is a curious circumstance that, some years 
later, Thurlow was the most conspicuous champion of 
Warren Hastings, while Wedderburne was among the 
most unrelenting persecutors of that great though not 

30 faultless statesman. Clive spoke in his own defence at 
less length and with less art than in the preceding year, 
but with much energy and pathos. He recounted his 
great actions and his wrongs; and, after bidding his 
hearers remember, that they were about to decide not 



134 MACAULAY'S ESSAYS 

only on his honour but on their own, he retired from 
the House. 

The Commons resolved that acquisitions made by the 
arms of the State belong to the State alone, and that it 
is illegal in the servants of the State to appropriate 
such acquisitions to themselves. They resolved that 
this wholesome rule appeared to have been systematic- 
ally violated by the English functionaries in Bengal. 
On a subsequent day they went a step further, and 
resolved that Clive had, by means of the power which lo 
he possessed as commander of the British forces in 
India, obtained large sums from Meer Jaffier. Here 
the Commons stopped. They had voted the major and 
minor of Burgoyne's syllogism; but they shrank from 
drawing the logical conclusion. When it was moved 15 
that Lord Clive had abused his powers, and set an evil 
example to the servants of the public, the previous 
question was put and carried. At length, long after 
the sun had risen on an animated debate, Wedderburne 
moved that Lord Clive had at the same time rendered 20 
great and meritorious services to his country; and this 
motion passed without a division. 

The result of this memorable inquiry appears to us, 
on the whole, honourable to the justice, moderation, and 
discernment of the Commons. They had indeed no 25 
great temptation to do wrong. They would have been 
very bad judges of an accusation brought against Jen- 
kinson or against Wilkes. But the question respecting 
Clive was not a party question; and the House accord- 
ingly acted with the good sense and good feeling which 30 
may always be expected from an assembly of English 
gentlemen, not blinded by faction. 

The equitable and temperate proceedings of the Brit- 
ish Parliament were set off to the greatest advantage 
by a foil. The wretched government of Louis the Fif- 35 



LOED CLIVE 135 

teentli had murdered, directly or indirectly, almost every 
Frenchman who had served his country with distinction 
in the East. Labourdonnais was flung into the Bastile, 
and, after years of suffering, left it only to die. Dupleix, 
5 stripped of his immense fortune, and broken-hearted by 
humiliating attendance in ante-chambers, sank into an 
obscure grave. Lally was dragged to the common place 
of execution with a gag between his lips. The Commons 
of England, on the other hand, treated their living cap- 

10 tain with that discriminating justice which is seldom 
shown except to the dead. They laid down sound gen- 
eral principles ; they delicately pointed out where he had 
deviated from those principles; and they tempered the 
gentle censure with liberal eulogy. The contrast struck 

15 Voltaire, always partial to England, and always eager 
to expose the abuses of the Parliaments of France. In- 
deed he seems, at this time, to have meditated a history 
of the conquest of Bengal. He mentioned his design 
to Dr. Moore, when that amusing writer visited him at 

20 Ferney. Wedderburne took great interest in the mat- 
ter, and pressed Clive to furnish materials. Had the 
plan been carried into execution, we have no doubt that 
Voltaire would have produced a book containing much 
lively and picturesque narrative, many just and humane 

25 sentiments poignantly expressed, many grotesque blun- 
ders, many sneers at the Mosaic chronology, much scan- 
dal about the Catholic missionaries, and much sublime 
theo-philanthropy, stolen from the New Testament, and 
put into the mouths of virtuous and philosophical 

30 Brahmins. 

Clive was now secure in the enjoyment of his fortune 
and his honours. He was surrounded. by attached friends 
and relations; and he had not yet passed the season of 
vigorous bodily and mental exertion. But clouds had 

35 long been gathering over his mind, and now settled on 



136 MACAULAY'S ESSAYS 

it in thick darkness. From early yonth he had been 
subject to fits of that strange melancholy "which re- 
joiceth exceedingly and is glad when it can find the 
grave.'^ While still a writer at Madras, he had twice 
attempted to destroy himself. Business and prosperity 5 
had produced a salutary effect on his spirits. In India, 
while he was occupied by great affairs, in England, 
while wealth and rank had still the charm of novelt}^, 
he had borne up against his constitutional miser}^ But 
he had now nothing to do, and nothing to wish for. lo 
His active spirit in an inactive situation drooped and 
withered like a plant in an uncongenial air. The malig- 
nity with which his enemies had pursued him, the indig- 
nity with which he had been treated by the committee, 
the censure, lenient as it was, which the House of Com- 15 
mons had pronounced, the knowledge that he was re- 
garded by a large portion of his countrymen as a cruel 
and perfidious tyrant, all concurred to irritate and de- 
press him. In the meantime, his temper was tried by 
acute physical suffering. During his long residence in 20 
tropical climates, he had contracted several painful dis- 
tempers. In order to obtain ease he called in the help 
of opium ; and he was gradually enslaved by this treach- 
erous ally. To the last, however, his genius occasionally 
flashed through the gloom. It was said that he would 25 
sometimes, after sitting silent and torpid for hours, 
rouse himself to the discussion of some great question, 
would display in full vigour all the talents of the soldier 
and the statesman, and would then sink back into his 
melancholy repose. 30 

The disputes with America had now become so seri- 
ous that an appeal to the sword seemed inevitable; and 
the Ministers were desirous to avail themselves of the 
services of Clive. Had he still been what he was when 
he raised the siege of Patna and annihilated the Dutch 35 



LOED CLIVE 137 

army and navy at the mouth of the Ganges, it is not 
improbable that the resistance of the colonists would 
have been put down, and that the inevitable separation 
would have been deferred for a few years. But it was 

5 too late. His strong mind was fast sinking under many 
kinds of suffering. On the twenty-second of November, 
1774, he died by his own hand. He had just completed 
his forty-ninth year. 

In the awful close of so much prosperity and glory, 

10 the vulgar saw only a confirmation of all their preju- 
dices; and some men of real piety and genius so far 
forgot the maxims both of religion and of philosophy 
as confidently to ascribe the mournful event to the just 
vengeance of God, and to the horrors of an evil con- 

15 science. It is with very different feelings that we con- 
template the spectacle of a great mind ruined by the 
weariness of satiety, by the pangs of wounded honour, 
by fatal diseases, and more fatal remedies. 

Clive committed great faults; and we have not at- 

20 tempted to disguise them. But his faults, when 
weighed against his merits, and viewed in connection 
with his temptations, do not appear to us to deprive 
him of his right to an honourable place in the estima- 
tion of posterity. 

25 From his first visit to India dates the renown of the 
English arms in the East. Till he appeared, his coun- 
trymen were despised as mere pedlars, while the 
French were revered as a people formed for victory and 
command. His courage and capacity dissolved the 

30 charm. With the defence of Arcot commences that 
long series of Oriental triumphs which closes with the 
fall of Ghizni. Nor must we forget that he was only 
twenty-five years old when he approved himself ripe 
for military command. This is a rare if not a singular 

35 distinction. It is true that Alexander, Conde, and 



X38 MACAULAY'S ESSAYS 

diaries tlie Twelfth, won great battles at a still earlier 
age; but those princes were surrounded by veteran gen- 
erals of distinguished skill, to whose suggestions must 
be attributed the victories of the Granicus, of Eocroi 
and of Narva. Clive, an inexperienced youth, had yet 5 
more experience than any of those who served under 
him. He had to form himself, to form his officers, and 
to form his army. The only man, as far as we recol- 
lect, who at an equally early age ever gave equal proof 
of talents for war, was ISTapoleon Bonaparte. ' 10 

From Clive's second visit to India dates the political 
ascendency of the English in that country. His dexter- 
ity and resolution realised, in the course of a few months, 
more than all the gorgeous visions which had floated 
before the imagination of Dupleix. Such an extent of 15 
cultivated territory, such an amount of revenue, such 
a multitude of subjects, was never added to the domin- 
ion of Eome by the most successful pro-consul. Nor 
were such wealthy spoils ever borne under arches of tri- 
umph, down the Sacred Way, and through the crowded 20 
Forum, to the threshold of Tarpeian Jove. The fame 
of those who subdued Antiochus and Tigranes grows 
dim when compared with the splendour of the exploits 
which the young English adventurer achieved at the 
head of an army not equal in numbers to one half of a 25 
Eoman legion. 

From Clive's third visit to India dates the purity of 
the administration of our Eastern empire. When he 
landed in Calcutta in 1765, Bengal was regarded as a 
place to which Englishmen were sent only to get rich, 30 
by any means, in the shortest possible time. He first 
made dauntless and unsparing war on that gigantic sys- 
tem of oppression, extortion, and corruption. In that 
war he manfully put to hazard his ease, his fame, and 
his splendid fortune. The same sense of justice which 35 



LOED CLIYE 139 

forbids ns to conceal or extenuate the faults of his 
earlier days compels us to admit that those faults were 
nobly repaired. If the reproach of the Company and 
of its servants has been taken away, if in India the 

5 yoke of foreign masters, elsewhere the heaviest of all 
yokes, has been found lighter than that of any native 
dynasty, if to that gang of public robbers, which for- 
merly spread terror through the whole plain of Bengal, 
has succeeded a body of functionaries not more highly 

10 distinguished by ability and diligence than by integrity, 
disinterestedness, and public spirit, if we now see such 
men as Munro, Elphinstone, and Metcalfe, after leading 
victorious armies, after making and deposing kings, re- 
turn, proud of their honourable poverty, from a land 

15 which once held out to every greedy factor the hope of 
boundless wealth, the praise is in no small measure due 
to Clive. His name stands high on the roll of con- 
querors. But it is found in a better list, in the list of 
those who have done and suffered much for the hap- 

20 piness of mankind. To the warrior, history will assign 
a place in the same rank with Lucullus and Trajan. 
Nor will she deny to the reformer a share of that ven- 
eration with which France cherishes the memory of 
Turgot, and with which the latest generations of Hin- 

25 doos will contemplate the statue of Lord William 
Bentinck. 



WAEEEN HASTINGS 

(October 1841) 

Memoirs of the Life of Warren Hastings, first Governor-General 
of Bengal. Compiled from Original Papers, by the Eev. 
G. E. Gleig, M.A. 3 vols. 8vo. London: 1841. 

We are inclined to think that we shall best meet the 
wishes of our readers, if, instead of minutely examin- 
ing this book, we attempt to give, in a way necessarily 5 
hasty and imperfect, our own view of the life and char- 
acter of Mr. Hastings. Our feeling towards him is not 
exactly that of the House of Commons which impeached 
him in 1787; neither is it that of the House of Com- 
mons which uncovered and stood up to receive him in 10 
1813. He had great qualities, and he rendered great 
services to the State. But to represent him as a man 
of stainless virtue is to make him ridiculous; and from 
regard for his memory, if from no other feeling, his 
friends would have done well to lend no countenance 15 
to such adulation. We believe that, if he were now liv- 
ing, he would have sufficient judgment and sufficient 
greatness of mind to wish to be shown as he was. He 
must have known that there were dark spots on his 
fame. He might also have felt with pride that the 20 
splendour of his fame would bear many spots. He would 
have wished posterity to have a likeness of him, though " 
an unfavourable likeness, rather than a daub at once 
insipid and unnatural, resembling neither him nor any- 
body else. "Paint me as I am,'' said Oliver Cromwell, 25 

140 



WAEKEN HASTINGS 141 

while sitting to young Lely. "If you leave out the scars 
and wrinkles, I will not pay you a shilling.'^ Even in 
such a trifle, the great Protector showed both his good 
sense and his magnanimity. He did not wish all that 
5 was characteristic in his countenance to be lost, in the 
vain attempt to give him the regular features and 
smooth blooming cheeks of the curl-pated minions of 
James the First. He was content that his face should 
go forth marked with all the blemishes which had been 

10 put on it by time, by war, by sleepless nights, by anxi- 
ety, perhaps by remorse ; but with valour, policy, author- 
it}^, and public care written in all its princely lines. If 
men truly great knew their own interest, it is thus that 
they would wish their minds to be portrayed. 

15 Warren Hastings sprang from an ancient and illus- 
trious race. It has been affirmed that his pedigree can 
be traced back to the great Danish sea-king, whose sails 
were long the terror of both coasts of the British Chan- 
nel, and who, after many fierce and doubtful struggles, 

20 yielded at last to the valour and genius of Alfred. But 
the undoubted splendour of the line of Hastings needs 
no illustration from fable. One branch of that line 
wore, in the fourteenth century, the coronet of Pem- 
broke. From another branch sprang the renowned 

25 Chamberlain, the faithful adherent of the White Eose, 
whose fate has furnished so striking a theme both to 
poets and to historians. His family received from the 
Tudors the earldom of Huntingdon, which, after long 
dispossession, was regained in our time by a series of 

80 events scarcely paralleled in romance. 

The lords of the manor of Daylesford, in Worcester- 
shire, claimed to be considered as the heads of this dis- 
tinguished family. The main stock, indeed, prospered 
less than some of the younger shoots. But the Dayles- 

35 ford family, though not ennobled, was wealthy and 



142 MACAULAY'S ESSAYS 

highly considered;, till, about two hundred years ago, it 
was overwhelmed by the great ruin of the civil war. 
The Hastings of that time was a zealous cavalier. He 
raised money on his lands, sent his plate to the mint 
at Oxford, joined the royal army, and, after spending 5 
half his property in the cause of King Charles, was 
glad to ransom himself by making over most of the 
remaining half to Speaker Lenthal. The old seat at 
Daylesford still remained in the family; but it could 
no longer be kept up ; and in the following generation 10 
it was sold to a merchant of London. 

Before this transfer took place, the last Hastings of 
Daylesford had presented his second son to the rectory 
of the parish in which the ancient residence of the fam- 
ily stood. The living was of little value ; and the situ- 15 
ation of the poor clergyman, after the sale of the estate, 
was deplorable. He was constantly engaged in law- 
suits about his tithes with the new lord of the manor, 
and was at length utterly ruined. His eldest 3on, 
Howard, a well-conducted young man, obtained a place 20 
in the customs. The second son, Pynaston, an idle 
worthless boy, married before he was sixteen, lost his 
wife in two years, and died in the West Indies, leaving 
to the care of his unfortuna+e father a little orphan, 
destined to strange and memorable vicissitudes of for- 25 
tune. 

Warren, the son of Pynaston, was born on the sixth 
of December, 1732. His mother died a few days later, 
and he was left dependent on his distressed grandfather. 
The child was early sent to the village school, where he 30 
learned his letters on the same bench with the sons of 
the peasantry; nor did anything in his garb or face 
indicate that his life was to take a widely different 
course from that of the young rustics with whom he 
studied and played. But no cloud could overcast the 35 



WAEEEN HASTINGS 143 

dawn of so much genius and so much ambition. The 
very ploughmen observed, and long remembered, how 
kindly little Warren took to his book. The daily sight 
of the lands which his ancestors had possessed, and 
5 Avhich had passed into the hands of strangers, filled his 
young brain with wild fancies of projects. He loved to 
hear stories of the wealth and greatness of his progen- 
itors, of their splendid housekeeping, their loyalty, and 
their valour. On one bright summer day, the boy, then 

10 just seven years old, lay on the bank of the rivulet 
which flows through the old domain of his house to join 
the Isis. There, as three score years and ten later he 
told the tale, rose in his mind a scheme which, through 
all the turns of his eventful career, was never abandoned, 

15 He would recover the estate which had belonged to his 
fathers. He would be Hastings of Daylesford. This 
purpose, formed in infancy and poverty, grew stronger 
as his intellect expanded and as his fortune rose. He 
pursued his plan with that calm but indomitable force of 

20 will which was the most striking peculiarity of his char- 
acter. When, under a tropical sun, he ruled fifty mil- 
lions of Asiatics, his hopes, amidst all the cares of war, 
finance, and legislation, still pointed to Daylesford. And 
when his long public life, so singularly chequered with 

25 good and evil, with glory and obloquy, had at length 
closed for ever, it was to Daylesford that he retired to 
die. 

When he was eight years old, his uncle Howard 
determined to take charge of him, and to give him a 

30 liberal education. The boy went up to London, and 
was sent to school at Newington, where he was well 
taught but ill fed. He always attributed the smallness 
of his stature to the hard and scanty fare of this semi- 
nary. At ten he was removed to Westminster school, 

35 then flourishing under the care of Dr. Nichols. Vinny 



144 MACAULAY'S ESSAYS 

Bourne, as his pupils affectionately called him, was one 
of the masters. Churchill, Colman, Lloyd, Cumberland, 
Cowper, were among the students. With Cowper, Has- 
tings formed a friendship which neither the lapse of time, 
nor a wide dissimilarity of opinions and pursuits, could 5 
wholly dissolve. It does not appear that they ever met 
after they had grown to manhood. But forty years 
later, when the voices of many great orators were crying 
for vengeance on the oppressor of India, the shy and 
secluded poet could imagine to himself Hastings the lo 
Governor-General only as the Hastings with whom he 
had rowed on the Thames and played in the cloister, 
and refused to believe that so good-tempered a fellow 
could have done anything very wrong. His own life 
had been spent in praying, musing, and rhyming among 15 
the water-lilies of the Ouse. He had preserved in no 
common measure the innocence of childhood. His 
spirit had indeed been severely tried, but not by tempta- 
tions which impelled him to any gross violation of the 
rules of social morality. He had never been attacked by 20 
combinations of powerful and deadly enemies. He had 
never been compelled to make a choice between innocence 
and greatness, between crime and ruin. Firmly as he 
held in theory the doctrine of human depravity, his 
habits were such that he was unable to conceive how far 25 
from the path of right even kind and noble natures may 
be hurried by the rage of conflict and the lust of 
dominion. 

Hastings had another associate at Westminster of 
whom we shall have occasion to make frequent mention, so 
Elijah Impey. We know little about their school days. 
But, we think, we may safely venture to guess that, 
whenever Hastings wished to play any trick more than 
usually naughty, he hired Impey with a tart or a ball 
to act as fag in the worst part of the prank. 35 



WAEEEN HASTINGS 145 

Warren was distinguished among his comrades as an 
excellent swimmer, boatman, and scholar. At fourteen 
he was first in the examination for the foundation. His 
name in gilded letters on the walls of the dormitory still 
5 attests his victory over many older competitors. He 
stayed two years longer at the school, and was looking 
forward to a studentship at Christ Church, when an 
event happened which changed the whole course of his 
life. Howard Hastings died, bequeathing his nephew 

10 to the care of a friend and distant relation, named 
Chiswick. This gentleman, though he did not abso- 
lutely refuse the charge, was desirous to rid himself of 
it as soon as possible. Dr. Nichols made strong remon- 
strance against the cruelty of interrupting the studies 

15 of a youth who seemed likely to be one of the first 
scholars of the age. He even offered to bear the expense 
of sending his favourite pupil to Oxford. But Mr. 
Chiswick was inflexible. He thought the years which 
had already been wasted on hexameters and pentameters 

20 quite sufficient. He had it in his power to obtain for 
the lad a writership in the service of the East India 
Company. Whether the young adventurer, when once 
shipped off, made a fortune, or died of a liver complaint, 
he equally ceased to be a burden to anybody. Warren 

25 was accordingly removed from Westminster school, and 
placed for a few months at a commercial academy, to 
study arithmetic and book-keeping. In January, 1750, 
a few days after he had completed his seventeenth year, 
he sailed for Bengal, and arrived at his destination in 

30 the October following. 

He was immediately placed at a desk in the Secre- 
tary's office at Calcutta, and laboured there during two 
years. Fort William was then purely a commercial set- 
tlement. In the south of India the encroaching policy 

85 of Dupleix had transformed the servants of the English 



l^Q MAC AULA Y'S ESSAYS 

Company, against their will, into diplomatists and gen- 
erals. The war of the succession was raging in the Car- 
natic; and the tide had been suddenly turned against 
the French by the genius of young Eobert Clive. But 
in Bengal the European settlers, at peace with the 5 
natives and with each other, were wholly occupied with 
ledgers and bills of lading. 

After two years passed in keeping accounts at Cal- 
cutta, Hastings was sent up the country to Cossimbazar, 
a town which lies on the Hoogley, about a mile from lo 
Moorshedabad, and which then bore to Moorshedabad a 
relation, if we may compare small things with great, 
such as the city of London bears to Westminster. 
Moorshedabad was the abode of the prince who, by an 
authority ostensibly derived from the Mogul, but really 15 
independent, ruled the three great provinces of Bengal, 
Orissa, and Bahar. At Moorshedabad were the court, 
the harem, and the public offices. Cossimbazar was a 
port and a place of trade, renowned for the quantity and 
excellence of the silks which were sold in its marts, and 20 
constantly receiving and sending forth fleets of richly 
laden barges. At this important point, the Company 
had established a small factory subordinate to that of 
Fort William. Here, during several years, Hastings was 
employed in making bargains for stuffs with native 25 
brokers. While he was thus engaged, Sura j ah Dowlah 
succeeded to the government, and declared war against 
the English. The defenceless settlement of Cossim- 
bazar, lying close to the tyrant's capital, was instantly 
seized. Hastings was sent a prisoner to Moorshedabad, 30 
but, in consequence of the humane intervention of the 
servants of the Dutch Company, was treated with indul- 
gence. Meanwhile the Nabob marched on Calcutta ; the 
governor and the commandant fled; the town and cita- 



WAKEEX HASTINGS 1^7 

del were taken, and most of the English prisoners per- 
ished in the Black Hole. 

In these events originated the greatness of Warren 
Hastings. The fugitive governor and his companions 
5 had taken refuge on the dreary islet of Fulda, near the 
mouth of the Hoogiey. They were naturally desirous to 
obtain full information respecting the proceedings of the 
Xabob; and no person seemed so likely to furnish it as 
Hastings, who was a prisoner at large in the immediate 

10 neighbourhood of the court. He thus became a diplo- 
matic agent, and soon established a high character for 
ability and resolution. The treason which at a later 
period was fatal to Sura j ah Dowlah was already in prog- 
ress ; and Hastings was admitted to the deliberations of 

15 the conspirators. But the time for striking had not 
arrived. It was necessary to postpone the execution of 
the design ; and Hastings, who was now in extreme peril, 
fled to Fulda. 

Soon after his arrival at Fulda, the expedition from 

20 Madras, commanded by Clive, appeared in the Hoogiey. 
Warren, young, intrepid, and excited probably by the 
example of the Commander of the Forces, who, having 
like himself been a mercantile agent of the Company, 
had been turned by public calamities into a soldier, 

25 determined to serve in the ranks. During the early 
operations of the war he carried a musket. But the 
quick eye of Clive soon perceived that the head of the 
young volunteer would be more useful than his arm. 
When, after the battle of Plassey, Meer Jaffier was pro- 

30 claimed Nabob of Bengal, Hastings was appointed to 
reside at the court of the new prince as agent for the 
Company. 

He remained at Moorshedabad till the jeaT 1761, 
when he became a Member of Council, and was conse- 

35 quently forced to reside at Calcutta. This was during 



148 MACAULAY'S ESSAYS 

the interval between Clive's first and second administra- 
tion, an interval which has left on the fame of the East 
India Company a stain not wholly effaced by many years 
of just and humane government. Mr. Yansittart, the 
Governor, was at the head of a new and anomalous em- 5 
pire. On one side was a band of English functionaries, 
daring, intelligent, eager to be rich. On the other side 
was a great native population, helpless, timid, accus- 
tomed to crouch under oppression. To keep the stronger 
race from preying oil the weaker, was an undertaking lo 
which tasked to the utmost the talents and energy of 
Olive. A/'ansittart, with fair intentions, was a feeble 
and inefficient ruler. The master caste, as was natural, 
broke loose from all restraint; and then was seen what 
we believe to be the most frightful of all spectacles, the 15 
strength of civilisation without its m.ercy. To all 
other despotism there is a check, imperfect indeed, and 
liable to gross abuse, but still sufficient to preserve 
society from the last extreme of misery. A time comes 
when the evils of submission are obviously greater than 20 
those of resistance, when fear itself begets a sort of 
courage, when a convulsive burst of popular rage and 
despair warns tyrants not to presume too far on the 
patience of mankind. But against misgovernment such 
as then afflicted Bengal it was impossible to struggle. 25 
The superior intelligence and energy of the dominant 
class made their power irresistible. A war of Ben- 
galees against Englishmen was like a war of sheep 
against wolves, of men against demons. The only pro- 
tection which the conquered could find was in the mod- 30 
eration, the clemency, the enlarged policy of the con- 
querors. That protection, at a later period, they found. 
But at first English power came among them unaccom- 
panied by English morality. There was an interval 
between the time at which they became our subjects, and 35 



WAKEEX HASTINGS 149 

the time at which we began to reflect that we were 
bound to discharge towards them the duties of rulers. 
During that interval the business of a servant of the 
Company was simply to wring out of the natives a 
5 hundred or two hundred thousand pounds as speedily as 
possible, that he might return home before his constitu- 
tion had suffered from the heat, to marry a peer's 
daughter, to buy rotten boroughs in Cornwall, and to 
give balls in St. James's Square. Of the conduct of 

10 Hastings at this time little is known; but the little that 
is known, and the circumstance that little is known, 
must be considered as honourable to him. He could not 
protect the natives : all that he could do was to abstain 
from plundering and oppressing them; and this he 

15 appears to have done. It is certain that at this time 
he continued poor; and it is equally certain that by 
cruelty and dishonesty he might easily have become rich. 
It is certain that he was never charged with having 
borne a share in the worst abuses which then prevailed ; 

20 and it is almost equally certain that, if he had borne a 
share in those abuses, the able and bitter enemies who 
afterwards persecuted him would not have failed to 
discover and to puoclaim his guilt. The keen, severe, 
and even malevolent scrutiny to which his whole public 

25 life was subjected, a scrutin}^ unparalleled, as we believe, 
in the history of mankind, is in one respect advanta- 
geous to his reputation. It brought many lamentable 
blemishes to light; but it entitles him to be considered 
pure from every blemish which has not been brought to 

30 light. 

The truth is that the temptations to which so many 
English functionaries yielded in the time of Mr. Yan- 
sittart were not temptations addressed to the ruling 
passions of Warren Hastings. He was not squeamish in 

35 pecuniary transactions ; but he was neither sordid nor 



150 MACAULAY'S ESSAYS 

rapacious. He was far too enlightened a man to look on 
a great empire merely as a buccaneer would look on a gal- 
leon. Had his heart been much worse than it was, his j 
understanding would have preserved him from that ex- f 
tremity of baseness. He was an unscrupulous, perhaps 5 
an unprincipled statesman ; but still he was a statesman, 
and not a freebooter. 

In 1764 Hastings returned to England. He had real- 
ised only a very moderate fortune; and that moderate 
fortune was soon reduced to nothing, partly by his lo 
praiseworthy liberality, and partly by his mismanage- 
ment. Towards his relations he appears to have acted 
very generously. The greater part of his savings he left 
in Bengal, hoping probably to obtain the high usury of 
India. But high usury and bad security generally go 15 
together; and Hastings lost both interest and principal. 

He remained four j-ears in England. Of his life at 
this time very little is known. But it has been asserted, 
and is highly probable, that liberal studies and the society 
of men of letters occupied a great part of his time. It 20 
is to be remembered to his honour that, in days when the 
languages of the East were regarded by other servants 
of the Company merely as the means of communicating 
with weavers and money-changers, his enlarged and ac- 
complished mind sought in Asiatic learning for new 25 
forms of intellectual enjoyment, and for new views of 
government and society. Perhaps, like most persons 
who have paid much attention to departments of knowl- 
edge which lie out of the common track, he was inclined 
to overrate the value of his favourite studies. He con- 30 
ceived that the cultivation of Persian literature might 
with advantage be made a part of the liberal education 
of an English gentleman; and he drew up a plan with 
that view. It is said that the University of Oxford, in 
which Oriental learning had never, since the revival of 35 



WAEKEN HASTINGS 151 

letters, been wholly neglected, was to be the seat of the 
institution which he contemplated. An endowment was 
expected from the munificence of the Company: and 
professors thoroughly competent to interpret Hafiz and 
5 Ferdusi were to be engaged in the East. Hastings 
called on Johnson, with the hope, as it should seem, of 
interesting in this project a man who enjoyed the 
highest literary reputation, and who was particularly 
connected with Oxford. The interview appears to have 

10 left on Johnson's mind a most favourable impression of 
the talents and attainments of his visitor. Long after, 
when Hastings was ruling the immense population of 
British India, the old philosopher wrote to him, and 
referred in the most courtly terms, though with great 

15 dignity, to their short but agreeable intercourse. 

Hastings soon began to look again towards India. 
He had little to attach him to England ; and his pecuni- 
ary embarrassments were great. He solicited his old 
masters the Directors for employment. They acceded 

20 to his request, with high compliments both to his abili- 
ties and to his integrity, and appointed him a Member 
of Council at Madras. It would be unjust not to men- 
tion that, though forced to borrow money for his outfit, 
he did not withdraw any portion of the sum which he 

25 had appropriated to the relief of his distressed relations. 
In the spring of 1769 he embarked on board of the Duke 
of Grafton, and commenced a voyage distinguished by 
incidents which might furnish matter for a novel. 

Among the passengers in the Dul-e of Grafton was a 

30 German of the name of Imhoff. He called himself a 
Baron; but he was in distressed circumstances, and was 
going out to Madras as a portrait-painter, in the hope 
of picking up some of the pagodas which were then 
lightly got and as lightly spent by the English in India. 

35 The Baron was accompanied by his wife, a native, we 



152 MACAULAY'S ESSAYS 

have somewhere read^ of Archangel. This young woman, 
who, born under the Arctic circle, was destined to play 
the part of a Queen under the tropic of Cancer, had an 
agreeable person, a cultivated mind, and manners in the 
highest degree engaging. She despised her husband 5 
heartily, and, as the story which we have to tell suffi- 
ciently proves, not without reason. She was interested 
by the conversation and flattered by the attentions of 
Hastings. The situation was indeed perilous. Ko 
place is so propitious to the formation either of close lo 
friendships or of deadly enmities as an Indiaman. There 
are very few people who do not find a voyage which 
lasts several months insupportably dull. Anything is 
welcome which may break that long monotony, a sail, a 
shark, an albatross, a man overboard. Most passengers 15 
find some resource in eating twice as many meals as on 
land. But the great devices for killing the time are quar- 
relling and flirting. The facilities for both these excit- 
ing pursuits are great. The inmates of the ship are 
thrown together far more than in any country-seat or 20 
boarding-house. None can escape from the rest except 
by imprisoning himself in a cell in which he can hardly 
turn. All food, all exercise, is taken in company. 
Ceremony is to a great extent banished. It is every day 
in the power of a mischievous person to inflict innumer- 25 
able annoyances. It is every day in the power of an 
amiable person to confer little services. It not seldom 
happens that serious distress and danger call forth, in 
genuine beauty and deformity, heroic virtues and abject 
vices which, in the ordinary intercourse of good society, 30 
might remain during many years unknown even to inti- 
mate associates. Under such circumstances met Warren 
Hastings and the Baroness Imhoff, two persons whose 
accomplishments would have attracted notice in any 
court of Europe. The gentleman had no domestic ties. 35 



WAEEEN HASTINGS 153 

The lady was tied to a husband for whom she had no 
regard, and who had no regard for his own honour. An 
attachment sprang up, which was soon strengthened by 
events such as could hardly have occurred on land. 
5 Hastings fell ill. The Baroness nursed him with 
womanly tenderness, gave him his medicines with her 
own hand, and even sat up in his cabin while he slept. 
Long before the Duke of Grafton reached Madras, Has- 
tings was in love. But his love was of a most charac- 

10 teristic description. Like his hatred, like his ambition, 
like all his passions, it was strong, but not impetuous. 
It was calm, deep, earnest, patient of delay, unconquer- 
able by time. Imhoff was called into council by his wife 
and his wife's lover. It was arranged that the Baroness 

15 should institute a suit for a divorce in the courts of 
Franconia, that the Baron should afford every facility 
to the proceeding, and that, during the years which 
might elapse before the sentence should be pronounced, 
they should continue to live together. It was also 

20 agreed that Hastings should bestow some very substan- 
tial marks of gratitude on the complaisant husband, and 
should, when the marriage was dissolved, make the lady 
his wife, and adopt the children whom she had already 
borne to Imhoff. 

25 At Madras, Hastings found the trade of the Company 
in a very disorganized state. His own tastes would have 
led him rather to political than to commercial pursuits : 
but he knew that the favour of his employers depended 
chiefly on their dividends, and that their dividends de- 

30 pended chiefly on the investment. He, therefore, with 
great judgment, determined to apply his vigorous mind 
for a time to this department of business, which had 
been much neglected, since the servants of the Company 
had ceased to be clerks, and had become, warriors and 

35 negotiators. 



154 MACAULAY'S ESSAYS 

In a \evj few months lie effected an important reform. 
The Directors notified to him their high approbation, 
and were so much pleased with his conduct that they 
determined to place him at the head of the government 
at Bengal. Early in 1772 he quitted Fort St. George 5 
for his new post. The Imhoffs, who were still man and 
wife, accompanied him, and lived at Calcutta on the 
same plan which they had already followed during more 
than two years. 

When Hastings took his seat at the head of the lo 
council-board, Bengal was still governed according to 
the system which Clive had devised, a system which was, 
perhaps, skilfully contrived for the purpose of facilitat- 
ing and concealing a great revolution, but which, when 
that revolution was complete and irrevocable, could pro- 15 
duce nothing but inconvenience. There were two gov- 
ernments, the real and the ostensible. The supreme 
power belonged to the Company, and was in truth the 
most despotic power that can be conceived. The only 
restraint on the English masters of the country was that 20 
which their own justice and humanity imposed on them. 
There was no constitutional check on their will, and re- 
sistance to them was utterly hopeless. 

But though thus absolute in reality the English had 
not yet assumed the style of sovereignty. They held 25 
their territories as vassals of the throne of Delhi; they 
raised their revenues as collectors appointed by the im- 
perial commission; their public seal was inscribed with 
the imperial titles ; and their mint struck only the impe- 
rial coin. 30 

There was still a Nabob of Bengal, who stood to the 
English rulers of his country in the same relation in 
which Augustulus stood to Odoacer, or the last Merovin- 
gians to Charles Martel and Pepin. He lived at Moor- 
shedabad, surrounded by princely magnificence. He 35 



WAKKEN HASTINGS 155 - 

was approached with outward marks of reverence, and 
his name was used in public instruments. But in the 
government of the country he had less real share than 
the youngest writer or cadet in the Company's service. 

5 The English council which represented the Company 
at Calcutta was constituted on a very different plan from 
that which has since been adopted. At present the 
Governor is, as to all executive measures, absolute. He 
can declare war, conclude peace, appoint public func- 

10 tionaries or remove them, in opposition to the unani- 
mous sense of those who sit with him in council. They 
are, indeed, entitled to know all that is done, to discuss 
all that is done, to advise, to remonstrate, to send pro- 
tests to England. But it is with the Governor that the 

15 supreme power resides, 'and on him that the whole re- 
sponsibility rests. This system, which was introduced 
by Mr. Pitt and Mr. Dundas in spite of the strenuous 
opposition of Mr. Burke, we conceive to be on the whole 
the best that was ever devised for the government of a 

20 country where no materials can be found for a represen- 
tative constitution. In the time of Hastings the Gov- 
ernor had only one vote in council, and, in case of an 
equal division, a casting vote. It therefore happened 
not unfrequently that he was overruled on the gravest 

25 questions ; and it was possible that he might be wholly 
excluded, for years together, from the real direction of 
public affairs. 

The English functionaries at Fort William had as yet 
paid little or no attention to the internal government 

30 of Bengal. The only branch of politics about which 
they much busied themselves was negotiation with the 
native princes. The police, the administration of jus- 
tice, the details of the collection of revenue, were almost 
entirely neglected. "We may remark that the phrase- 

35 ology of the Company's servants still bears the traces 



156 MAC AUL AY'S ESSAYS 

of this state of things. To this day they always use the 
word "political," as s3^non3'moiTS with "diplomatic." 
We could name a gentleman still living, who was de- 
scribed by the highest authority as an invaluable public 
servant, eminently fit to be at the head of the internal 5 
administration of a whole presidency, but unfortunately 
quite ignorant of all political business. 

The internal government of Bengal the English rulers 
delegated to a great native minister, who was stationed 
at Moorshedabad. All military affairs, and, with the 10 
exception of what pertains to mere ceremonial, all for- 
eign affairs, were withdrawn from his control; but the 
other departments of the administration were entirely 
confided to him. His own stipend amounted to near a 
hundred thousand pounds sterling a year. The personal 15 
allowance of the nabob, amounting to more than three 
hundred thousand pounds a year, passed through the 
minister's hands, and was, to a great extent, at his dis- 
posal. The collection of the revenue, the administration 
of justice, the maintenance of order, w^ere left to this 20 
high functionary; and for the exercise of his immense 
power he was responsible to none but the British masters 
of the country. 

A situation so important, lucrative, and splendid, was 
naturally an object of ambition to the ablest and most 25 
powerful natives. Clive had found it difficult to decide 
between conflicting pretensions. Two candidates stood 
out prominently from the crowd, each of them the rep- 
resentative of a race and of a religion. 

One of these was Mahommed Reza Khan, a Mussul-30 
man of Persian extraction, able, active, religious after 
the fashion of his people, and highly esteemed by them. 
In England he might perhaps have been regarded as a 
corrupt and greedy politician. But, tried by the lower 



WAEKEX HASTINGS 157 

standard of Indian morality, he might be considered as 
a man of integrity and honour. 

His competitor was a Hindoo Brahmin whose name 
has, by a terrible and melancholy event, been inseparably 
5 associated with that of Warren Hastings, the Maharajah 
Nuncomar. This man had played an important part in 
all the revolutions which, since the time of Sura j ah 
Dowlah, had taken place in Bengal. To the considera- 
tion which in that country belongs to high and pure 

10 caste, he added the weight which is derived from wealth, 
talents, and experience. Of his moral character it is 
difficult to give a notion to those who are acquainted 
with human nature only as it appears in our island. 
What the Italian is to the Englishman, what the Hindoo 

15 is to the Italian, what the Bengalee is to other Hindoos, 
that was Xuncomar to other Bengalees. The physical 
organization of the Bengalee is feeble even to effemi- 
nacy. He lives in a constant vapour bath. His pur- 
suits are sedentary, his limbs delicate, his movements 

20 languid. During many ages he has been trampled upon 
by men of bolder and more hardy breeds. Courage, in- 
dependence, veracity, are qualities to which his consti- 
tution and his situation are equally unfavourable. His 
mind bears a singular analogy to his body. It is weak 

25 even to helplessness for purposes of manly resistance ; 
but its suppleness and its tact move the children of 
sterner climates to admiration not unmingled with con- 
tempt. All those arts which are the natural defence 
of the weak are more fam^iliar to this subtle race than 

30 to the Ionian of the time of Juvenal, or to the Jew of 
the dark ages. What the horns are to the buffalo, what 
the paw is to the tiger, what the sting is to the bee, 
what beauty, according to the old Greek song, is to 
woman, deceit is to the Bengalee. Large promises, 

35 smooth excuses, elaborate tissues of circumstantial false- 



158 MACAULAY^S ESSAYS 

hood, chicanery, perjiir}^, forgery, are the weapons, offen- 
sive and defensive, of the people of the Lower Ganges. 
All those millions do not furnish one sepoy to the 
armies of the Company. But as usurers, as money- 
changers, as sharp legal practitioners, no class of human 5 
beings can bear a comparison with them. With all his 
softness, the Bengalee is by no means placable in his 
eninities or prone to pit}^ The pertinacity with which 
he adheres to his purposes 3delds only to the immediate 
pressure of fear. Xor does he lack a certain kind of lo 
courage which is often wanting to his masters. To in- 
evitable evils he is sometimes found to oppose a passive 
fortitude, such as the Stoics attributed to their ideal 
sage. An European warrior who rushes on a battery 
of cannon with a loud hurrah, will sometimes shriek 15 
under the surgeon's knife, and fall into an agony of 
despair at the sentence of death. But the Bengalee, 
who would see his country overrun, his house laid in 
ashes, his children murdered or dishonoured, without 
having the spirit to strike one blow, has yet been known 20 
to endure torture with the firmness of Mucins, and to 
mount the scaffold with the steady step and even pulse 
of Algernon Sydney. 

In Nuncomar, the national character was strongly and 
with exaggeration personified. The Company's servants 25 
had repeatedly detected him in the most criminal in- 
trigues. On one occasion he brought a false charge 
against another Hindoo, and tried to substantiate it by 
producing forged documents. On another occasion it 
was discovered that, while professing the strongest at- so 
tachment to the English, he was engaged in several con- 
spiracies against them, and in particular that he was 
the medium of a correspondence between the court of 
Delhi and the French authorities in the Carnatic. For 
these and similar practices he had been long detained 35 



WAEEEN HASTINGS 159' 

in confinement. But his talents and i-nfluence had not 
only procured his liberation, but had obtained for him 
a certain degree of consideration even among the British 
rulers of his country. 
5 Clive was extremely unwilling to place a Mussulman 
at the head of the administration of Bengal. On the 
other hand, he could not bring himself to confer im- 
mense power on a man to whom every sort of villainy 
had repeatedly been brought home. Therefore, though 

10 the nabob, over whom Nuncomar had by intrigue ac- 
quired great influence, begged that the artful Hindoo 
might be intrusted with the government, Clive, after 
some hesitation, decided honestly and wisely in favour 
of Mahommed Eeza Khan. When Hastings became 

15 Governor, Mahommed Eeza Khan had held power seven 
years. An infant son of Meer Jaffier was now nabob; 
and the guardianship of the young prince's person had 
been confided to the minister. 

Nuncomar, stimulated at once by cupidity and malice, 

20 had been constantly attempting to hurt the reputation 
of his successful rival. This was not difficult. The 
revenues of Bengal, under the administration estab- 
lished by Clive, did not yield such a surplus as had been 
anticipated by the Company ; for, at that time, the most 

25 absurd notions were entertained in England respecting 
the wealth of India. Palaces of porphyr}^, hung with 
the richest brocade, heaps of pearls and diamonds, vaults 
from which pagodas and gold mohurs were measured 
out by the bushel, filled the imagination even of men 

30 of business. Nobody seemed to be aware of what never- 
theless was most undoubtedly the truth, that India was 
a poorer country than countries which in Europe are 
reckoned poor, than Ireland, for example, or than Por- 
tugal. It was confidently believed by Lords of the 

35 Treasury and members for the city that Bengal would 



160 MACAULAY'S ESSAYS 

not only defray its own charges, but would afford an 
increased dividend to the proprietors of India stock, 
and large relief to the English finances. These absurd 
expectations were disappointed; and the Directors, nat- 
urally enough, chose to attribute the disappointment 5 
rather to the mismanagement of Mahommed Eeza Khan 
than to their own ignorance of the country intrusted 
to their care. They were confirmed in their error by the 
agents of N'uncomar; for Nuncomar had agents even 
in Leadenhall Street. Soon after Hastings reached Cal- lo 
cutta, he received a letter addressed by the Court of 
Directors, not to the Council generally, but to himself 
in particular. He was directed to remove Mahommed 
Eeza Khan, to arrest him together with all his family 
and all his partisans, and to institute a strict inquiry 15 
into the whole administration of the province. It was 
added that the Governor would do well to avail him- 
self of the assistance of Nuncomar in the investigation. 
The vices of Nuncomar were acknowledged. But even 
from his vices, it was said, much advantage might at 20 
such a conjuncture be derived; and, though he could 
not safely be trusted, it might still be proper to encour- 
age him by hopes of reward. 

The Governor bore no goodwill to Nuncomar. Many 
years before, they had known each other at Moorsheda- 25 
bad; and then a quarrel had arisen between them which 
all the authority of their superiors could hardly com- 
pose. Widely as they differed in most points, they re- 
sembled each other in this, that both were men of unfor- 
giving natures. To Mahommed Eeza Khan, on the 30 
other hand, Hastings had no feelings of hostility. Nev- 
ertheless he proceeded to execute the instructions of the 
Company with an alacrity which he never showed, except 
when instructions were in perfect conformit}^ with his 
own views. He had, wisely as we think, determined to 35 



WAEEEN HASTINGS 161 

get rid of the system of double government in Bengal. 
The orders of the Directors furnished him with the 
means of effecting his purpose, and dispensed him from 
the necessity of discussing the matter with his Council. 
5 He took his measures with his usual vigour and dexter- 
ity. At midnight, the palace of Mahommed Reza Khan 
at Moorshedabad was surrounded by a battalion of 
sepoys. The Minister was roused from his slumbers 
and informed that he was a prisoner. With the Mussul- 
10 man gravity, he bent his head and submitted himself to 
the will of God. He fell not alone. A chief named 
Schitab Eoy had been intrusted with the government of 
Bahar. His valour and his attachment to the English 
had more than once been signally proved. On that 
15 memorable day on which the people of Patna saw from 
their walls the whole army of the Mogul scattered by 
the little band of Captain Knox, the voice of the British 
conquerors assigned the palm of gallantry to the brave 
x^siatic. "I never,'' said Knox, when he introduced 
20 Schitab Eoy, covered with blood and dust, to the Eng- 
lish functionaries assembled in the factory, "I never 
saw a native fight so before." Schitab Eoy was involved 
in the ruin of Mahommed Eeza Khan, was removed 
from office, and was placed under arrest. The members 
25 of the Council received no intimation of these measures 
till the prisoners were on their road to Calcutta. 

The inquiry into the conduct of the minister was 
postponed on different pretences. He was detained in 
an easy confinement during many months. In the mean- 
so time, the great revolution which Hastings had planned 
was carried into effect. The office of minister was abol- 
ished. The internal administration was transferred to 
the servants of the Company. A system, a very imper- 
fect system, it is true, of civil and criminal justice, 
S5 under English superintendence, was established. The 



162 MACAULAY'.S ESSAYS 

nabob was no longer to have even an ostensible share in 
the government; but he was still to receive a consider- 
able annual allowance, and to be surrounded with the 
state of sovereignty. As he was an infant, it was neces- 
sary to provide guardians for his person and property. 5 
His person was intrusted to a lady of his father's harem, 
known by the name of the Munny Begum. The office 
of treasurer of the household was bestowed on a son of 
Nuncomar, named Goordas. Nuncomar's services were 
wanted; yet he could not safely be trusted w^ith power; 10 
and Hastings thought it a masterstroke of policy to 
reward the able and unprincipled parent by promoting 
the inoffensive child. 

The revolution completed, the double government dis- 
solved, the Company installed in the' full sovereignty 15 
of Bengal, Hastings had no motive to treat the late 
ministers with rigour. Their trial had been put off on 
various pleas till the new organization was complete. 
They were then brought before a committee, over which 
the Governor presided. Schitab Eoy was speedily ac- 20 
quitted with honour. A formal apology was made to 
him for the restraint to which he had been subjected. 
All the Eastern marks of respect were bestowed on him. 
He was clothed in a robe of state, presented with jewels 
and with a richly harnessed elephant, and sent back to 25 
his government at Patna. But his health had suffered 
from confinement; his high spirit had been cruelly 
wounded; and soon aft^r his liberation he died of a 
broken heart. 

The innocence of Mahommed Eeza Khan was not so so 
clearly established. But the Governor was not disposed 
to deal harshly. After a long hearing, in which Nun- 
comar appeared as the accuser, and displayed both the 
art and the inveterate rancour which distinguished him, 
Hastings pronounced that the charge had not been made 35 



WAKEEX HASTINGS 163 

oiit^ and ordered the fallen minister to be set at liberty. 
Xuncomar had purposed to destroy the Mussulman 
administration, and to rise on its ruin. Both his malevo- 
lence and his cupidity had been disappointed. Hastings 
5 had made him a tool, had used him for the purpose of 
accomplishing the transfer of the government from 
Moorshedabad to Calcutta, from native to European 
hands. The rival, the enemy, so long envied, so im- 
placably persecuted, had been dismissed unhurt. The 

10 situation so long and ardently desired had been abol- 
ished. It was natural that the Governor should be from 
that time an object of the most intense hatred to the 
vindictive Brahmin. As yet, however, it was necessary 
to suppress such feelings. The time was coming when 

15 that long animosity was to end in a desperate and deadly 
struggle. 

In the meantime, Hastings was compelled to turn his 
attention to foreign affairs. The object of his diplomacy 
was at this time simply to get money. The finances of 

20 his government were in an embarrassed state, and this 
embarrassment he was determined to relieve by some 
means, fair or foul. The principle which directed all 
his dealings with his neighbours is fully expressed by 
the old motto of one of the great predatory families of 

25 Teviotdale, "Thou shalt want ere I want.^' He seems 
to have laid it down, as a fundamental proposition which 
could not be disputed, that, when he had not as many 
lacs of rupees as the public service required, he was to 
take them from anybody who had. One thing, indeed, 

30 is to be said in excuse for him. The pressure applied to 
him by his employers at home, was such as only the 
highest virtue could have withstood, such as left him 
no choice except to commit great wrongs, or to resign 
his high post, and with that post all his hopes of for- 

35 tune and distinction. The Directors, it is true, never 



164 MACAITLAY'S ESSAYS 

enjoined or applauded any crime. Far from it. Who- 
ever examines their letters written at that time, will find 
there many just and humane sentiments, many excellent 
precepts, in short, an admirable code of political ethics. 
But every exhortation is modified or nullified by a de- 5 
mand for money. "Govern leniently and send more 
money; practise strict justice and moderation towards 
neighbouring powers, and send more money"; this is, 
in truth, the sum of almost all the instructions that 
Hastings ever received from home. Now these instruc- lo 
tions, being interpreted, mean simply, "Be the father 
and the oppressor of the people; be just and unjust, 
moderate and rapacious." The Directors dealt with 
India, as the Church, in the good old times, dealt with 
a heretic. They delivered the victim over to the execu- 15 
tioners, with an earnest request that all possible tender- 
ness might be shown. We by no means accuse or sus- 
pect those who framed these despatches of hypocrisy. 
It is probable that, writing fifteen thousand miles from 
the place where their orders were to be carried into 20 
effect, they never perceived the gross inconsistency of 
which they were guilty. But the inconsistency was at 
once manifest to their vicegerent at Calcutta, who, with 
an empty treasury, with an unpaid army, with his own 
salary often in arrears, with deficient crops, with govern- 25 
ment tenants daily running aw^ay, was called upon to 
remit home another half million without fail. Hastings 
saw that it was absolutely necessary for him to disre- 
gard either the moral discourses or the pecuniary requi- 
sitions of his employers. Being forced to disobey them 30 
in something, he had to consider what kind of disobedi- 
ence they would most readily pardon; and he correctly 
judged that the safest course would be to neglect the 
sermons and to find the rupees. 

A mind so fertile as his, and so little restrained by 35 



WAEKEN HASTINGS 165 

conscientious scruples, speedily discovered several modes 
of relieving the financial embarrassments of the Gov- 
ernment. The allowance of the Nabob of Bengal was 
reduced at a stroke from three hundred and twenty 
5 thousand pounds a year to half that sum. The Com- 
pany had bound itself to pay near three hundred thou- 
sand pounds a year to the Great Mogul, as a mark of 
homage for the provinces which he had intrusted to their 
care; and they had ceded to him the districts of Corah 

10 and Allahabad. On the plea that the Mogul was not 
really independent, but merely a tool in the hands of 
others, Hastings determined to retract these conces- 
sions. He accordingly declared that the English would 
pay no more tribute, and sent troops to occupy Allaha- 

15 bad and Corah. The situation of these places was such, 
that there would be little advantage and great expense 
in retaining them. Hastings, who wanted money, and 
not territory, determined to sell them. A purchaser 
was not wanting. The rich province of Oude had, in 

20 the general dissolution of the Mogul Empire, fallen to 
the share of the great Mussulman house by which it is 
still governed. About twenty years ago, this house, by 
the permission of the British Government, assumed the 
royal title; but in the time of Warren Hastings such 

25 an assumption would have been considered by the Ma- 
hommedans of India as a monstrous impiety. The 
Prince of Oude, though he held the power, did not 
venture to use the style of sovereignty. To the appella- 
tion of Nabob or Viceroy, he added that of Vizier of 

30 the monarchy of Hindostan, just as in the last century 
the Electors of Saxony and Brandenburg, though inde- 
pendent of the Emperor, and often in arms against him, 
were proud to style themselves his Grand Chamberlain 
and Grand Marshal. Sujah Dowlah, then Nabob Vizier, 

35 was on excellent terms with the English. He had a 



166 MACAFLAY'S ESSAYS 

large treasure. Allahabad and Corah were so situated 
that they might be of use to him and could be of none 
to the Company. The buyer and seller soon came to an 
understanding; and the provinces which had been torn 
from the Mogul were made over to the Government of 5 
Oude for about half a million sterling. 

But there was another matter still more important to 
he settled by the Vizier and the Governor. The fate of 
a brave people was to be decided. It was decided in a 
manner which has left a lasting stain on the fame of 10 
Hastings and of England. 

The people of Central Asia had always been to the 
inhabitants of India what the warriors of the German 
forests were to the subjects of the decaying monarchy 
of Eome. The dark, slender, and timid Hindoo shrank 15 
from a conflict with the strong muscle and resolute 
spirit of the fair race which dwelt beyond the passes. 
There is reason to believe that, at a period anterior to 
the dawn of regular history, the people who spoke the 
rich and flexible Sanskrit came from regions lying far 20 
beyond the Hyphasis and the Hystaspes, and imposed 
their yoke on the children of the soil. It is certain that, 
during the last ten centuries, a succession of invaders 
descended from the west on Hindostan; nor was the 
course of conquest ever turned back towards the setting 25 
sun, till that memorable campaign in which the cross 
of Saint George was planted on the walls of Ghizni. 

The Emperors of Hindostan themselves came from 
the other side of the great mountain ridge; and it had 
always been their practice to recruit their army from 30 
the hardy and valiant race from which their own illus- 
trious house sprang. Among the military adventurers 
who were allured to the Mogul standards from the neigh- 
borhood of Cabul and Candahar, were conspicuous sev- 
eral gallant bands, known by the name of the Eohillas. 35 



WAEEEN HASTINGS 167 

Their services had been rewarded with large tracts of 
land, fiefs of the spear, if we may use an expression 
drawn from an analogous state of things, in that fertile 
plain through which the Kamgunga flows from the. 
5 snowy heights of Kumaon to join the Ganges. In tlie 
general confusion which followed the death of Aurung- 
zebe, the warlike colony became virtually independent. 
The Eohillas were distinguished from the other inhab- 
itants of India by a peculiarly fair complexion. They 

10 were more honourably distinguished by courage in war, 
and by skill in the arts of peace. While anarchy raged 
from Lahore to Cape Comorin, their little territory en- 
joyed the blessings of repose under the guardianship of 
valour. Agriculture and commerce flourished among 

15 them ; nor were they negligent of rhetoric and poetry. 
Many persons now living have heard aged men talk with 
regret of the golden days when the Afghan princes ruled 
in the vale of Eohilcund. 

Sujah Dowlah had set his heart on adding this rich 

20 district to his own principality. Eight, or show of right, 
he had absolutely none. His claim was in no respect 
better founded than that of Catherine of Poland, or 
that of the Bonaparte family to Spain. The Eohillas 
held their country by exactly the same title by which he 

25 held his, and had governed their country far better than 
his had ever been governed. Nor were they a people 
whom it was perfectly safe to attack. Their land was 
indeed an open plain destitute of natural defences; but 
their veins were full of the high blood of Afghanistan. 

30 As soldiers, they had not the steadiness which is seldom 
found except in company with strict discipline; but 
their impetuous valour had been proved on many fields 
of battle. It was said that their chiefs, when united by 
common peril, could bring eighty thousand men into the 

35 field. Sujah Dowlah' had himself seen them fight, and 



Igg MACAULAY^S ESSAYS 

wisely shrank from a conflict with them. There was in 
India one army, and only one, against which even those 
proud Caucasian tribes could not stand. It had been 
abundantly proved that neither tenfold odds, nor the 
martial ardour of the boldest Asiatic nations, could 5 
avail ought against English science and resolution. 
Was it possible to induce the Governor of Bengal to 
let out to hire the irresistible energies of the imperial 
people, the skill against which the ablest chiefs of Hin- 
dostan were helpless as infants, the discipline which had 10 
so often triumphed over the frantic struggles of fanati- 
cism and despair, the unconquerable British courage 
which is never so sedate and stubborn as toward the close 
of a doubtful and murderous day ? 

This was what the Nabob Vizier asked, and what 15 
Hastings granted. A bargain was soon struck. Each 
of the negotiators had what the other wanted. Has- 
tings was in need of funds to carry on the government 
of Bengal, and to send remittances to London; and 
Sujah Dowlah had an ample revenue. Sujah Dowlah 20 
was bent on subjugating the Eohillas ; and Hastings had 
at his disposal the only force by which the Eohillas 
could be subjugated. It was agreed that an English 
army should be lent to the Nabob Vizier, and that, for 
the loan, he should pay four hundred thousand pounds 25 
sterling, besides defraying all the charge of the troops 
while employed in his service. 

"I really cannot see," says Mr. Gleig, "upon what 
grounds, either of political or moral justice, this proposi- 
tion deserves to be stigmatised as infamous." If we 30 
understand the meaning of the words, it is infamous to 
commit a wicked action for hire, and it is wicked to en- 
gage in war without provocation. In this particular 
war, scarcely one aggravating circumstance was wanting. 
The object of the Eohilla war was this, to deprive a 35 



WAKEEN HASTINGS Igcj 

large population, who had never done us the least harm,, 
of a good government, and to place them, against their 
will, under an execrably bad one. Nay, even this is not 
all. England now descended far below the level even of 
5 those petty German princes who, about the same time,, 
sold us troops to fight the Americans. The hussar- 
mongers of Hesse and Anspach had at least the assur- 
ance that the expeditions on which their soldiers were 
to be employed would be conducted in conformity with 

10 the humane rules of civilised warfare. Was the Eohilla 
war likely to be so conducted ? Did the Governor stipu- 
late that it should be so conducted? He well knew 
what Indian warfare was. He well knew that the power 
which he covenanted to put into Sujah Dowlah's hands- 

15 would, in all probability, be atrociously abused ; and he 
required no guarantee, no promise, that it should not be 
so abused. He did not even reserve to himself the right 
of withdrawing his aid in case of abuse, however gross.. 
We are almost ashamed to notice Major Scott's plea,. 

20 that Hastings was justified in letting out English troops 
to slaughter the Eohillas, because the Rohillas were not 
of Indian race, but a colony from a distant country. 
What were the English themselves? Was it for them 
to proclaim a crusade for the expulsion of all intruders 

25 from the countries watered by the Ganges ? Did it lie 
in their mouths to contend that a foreign settler who 
establishes an empire in India is a caput lupinum? 
^¥hat would they have said if any other power had,, 
on such a ground, attacked Madras or Calcutta, without 

30 the slightest provocation ? Such a defense was wanting 
to make the infamy of the transaction complete. The 
atrocity of the crime, and the hypocrisy of the apology,, 
are worthy of each other. 

One of the three brigades of which the Bengal army 

35 consisted w^as sent under Colonel Champion to join 



270 MACAULAY'S ESSAYS 

SiTJah Dowlah's forces. The Eohillas expostulated, en- 
treated, offered a large ransom, but in vain. They then 
resolved to defend themselves to the last. A bloody 
battle was fought. "The enemy," says Colonel Cham- 
pion, "gave proof of a good share of military knowledge ; 5 
and it is impossible to describe a more obstinate firm- 
ness of resolution than they displayed." The dastardly 
sovereign of Oude fled from the field. The English 
were left unsupported; but their fire and their charge 
were irresistible. It was not, however, till the most dis- lo 
tinguished chiefs had fallen, fighting bravely at the 
head of their troops, that the Eohilla ranks gave way. 
Then the Nabob Vizier and his rabble made their ap- 
pearance, and hastened to plunder the camp of the 
valiant enemies, whom they had never dared to look in 15 
the face. The soldiers of the Company, trained in an 
exact discipline, kept unbroken order, while the tents 
were pillaged by these worthless allies. But many 
voices were heard to exclaim, "We have had all the fight- 
ing, and those rogues are to have all the profit." 20 

Then the horrors of Indian war were let loose on the 
fair valleys and cities of Eohilcund. The whole coun- 
try was in a blaze. More than a hundred thousand peo- 
ple fied from their homes to pestilential jungles, prefer- 
ring famine, and fever, and the haunts of tigers, to the 25 
tyranny of him, to whom an English and a Christian 
government had, for shameful lucre, sold their sub- 
stance, and their blood, and the honour of their wives 
and daughters. Colonel Champion remonstrated with 
the Nabob Vizier, and sent strong representations to 30 
Fort William ; but the Governor had made no conditions 
as to tke mode in which the war was to be carried on. 
He had troubled himself about nothing but his forty 
lacs ; and, though he might disapprove of Sujah Dow- 
lah's wanton barbarity, he did not think himself entitled 35 



WAKEEX HASTINGS 171 

to interfere, except by offering advice. This delicacy 
excites the admiration of the biographer. "Mr. Has- 
tings/' he says, "could not himself dictate to the Nabob, 
nor permit the commander of the Company's troops to 
5 dictate how the war was to be carried on." No, to be 
sure. Mr. Hastings had only to put down by main force 
the brave struggles of innocent men fighting for their 
liberty. Their military resistance crushed, his duties 
ended; and he had then only to fold his arms and look 

10 on, while their villages were burned, their children 
butchered, and their women violated. Will Mr. Gleig 
seriously maintain this opinion? Is any role more 
plain than this, that whoever voluntarily gives to an- 
other irresistible power over human beings is bound to 

15 take order that such power shall not be barbarously 
abused ? But we beg pardon of our readers for arguing 
a point so clear. 

We hasten to the end of this sad and disgraceful story. 
The war ceased. The finest population in India was sub- 

20 jected to a greedy, cowardly, cruel tyrant. Commerce and 
agriculture languished. The rich province which had 
tempted the cupidity of Sujah Dowlah became the most 
miserable part even of his miserable dominions. Yet is 
the injured nation not extinct. At long intervals gleams 

25 of its ancient spirit have flashed forth ; and even at this 
day, valour, and self-respect, and a chivalrous feeling 
rare among Asiatics, and a bitter remembrance of the 
great crime of England, distinguish that noble Afghan 
race. To this day they are regarded as the best of all 

30 sepoys at the cold steel ; and it was very recently re- 
marked, by one who had enjoyed great opportunities of 
observation, that the only natives of India to whom the 
word "gentleman" can with perfect propriety be applied, 
are to be found among the Eohillas. 

35 Whatever we may think of the morality of Hastings, 



172 MACAULAY'S ESSAYS 

it cannot be denied that the financial results of his 
policy did honour to his talents. In less than two years 
after he assumed the government, he had without im- 
posing any additional burdens on the people subject to 
his authority, added about four hundred, and fifty thou- 5 
sand pounds to the annual income- of the Company, 
besides procuring about a million in ready money. He 
had also relieved the finances of Bengal from military 
expenditure, amounting to near a quarter of a million a 
year, and had thrown that charge on the Nabob of 10 
Oude. There can be no doubt that this was a result 
which, if it had been obtained by honest means, would 
have entitled him to the warmest gratitude of his coun- 
try, and which, by whatever means obtained, proved 
that he possessed great talents for administration. 15 

In the meantime, Parliament had been engaged in 
long and grave discussions on Asiatic afi:airs. The 
ministry of Lord North, in the session of 1773, intro- 
duced a measure which made a considerable change in 
the constitution of the Indian Government. This law, 20 
known by the name of the Eegulating Act, provided that 
the presidency of Bengal should exercise a control over 
the other possessions of the Company; that the chief 
of that presidency should be st3ded Governor-General; 
that he should be assisted by four Councillors ; and 25 
that a supreme court of judicature, consisting of a chief 
justice and three inferior judges, should be established 
at Calcutta. This court was made independent of the 
Governor-General and Council, and was intrusted with a 
civil and criminal jurisdiction of immense and, at the 30 
same time, of undefined extent. 

The Governor-General and Councillors were named 
in the Act, and were to hold their situations for five 
years. Hastings was to be the first Governor-General. 
One of the four new Councillors, Mr. Barwell, an expe- 35 



WAKKEN HASTINGS I73 

rienced servant of the Company, was then in India. 
The other three. General Clavering, Mr. Monson, -and 
Mr. Francis, were sent out from England. 

The ablest of the new Councillors was, beyond all 
5 doubt, Philip Francis. His acknowledged compositions 
proved that he possessed considerable eloquence and 
information. Several years passed in the public offices 
had form.ed him to habits of business. His enemies 
had never denied that he had a fearless and manly spirit ; 

10 and his friends, we are afraid, must acknowledge that 
his estimate of himself was extravagantly high, that his 
temper was irritable, that his deportment was often 
rude and petulant, and that his hatred was of intense 
bitterness and long duration. 

15 It is scarcely possible to mention this eminent man 
without adverting for a moment to the question which 
his name at once suggests to every mind. Was he the 
author of the Letters of Junius f Our own firm belief is 
that he was. The evidence is, we think, such as would 

20 support a verdict in a civil, nay, in a criminal pro- 
ceeding. The handwriting of Junius is the very peculiar 
handwriting of Francis, slightly disguised. As to the 
position, pursuits, and connections of Junius, the fol- 
lowing are the most important facts which can be con- 

25 sidered as clearly proved : first, that he was acquainted 
with the technical forms of the Secretary of State's 
office; secondly, that he was intimately acquainted with 
the business of the War Office; thirdly, that he, during 
the year 1770, attended debates in the House of Lords, 

30 and took notes of speeches, particularly of the speeches 
of Lord Chatham; fourthly, that he bitterly resented 
the appointment of Mr. Chamier to the place of Deputy 
Secretary-at-War ; fifthly, that he was bound by some 
strong tie to the first Lord Holland. Now, Francis 

35 passed some years in the Secretary of State's office. He 



174 MAC AUL AY'S ESSAYS 

was subsequently Chief Clerk of the War Office. He 
rep.eatedly mentioned that he had himself, in 1770, 
heard speeches of Lord Chatham; and some of these 
speeches were actually printed from his notes. He 
resigned his clerkship at the War Office from resent- 5 
ment at the appointment of Mr. Chamier. It was by 
Lord Holland that he was first introduced into the 
public service. Now, here are five marks, all of which 
ought to be found in Junius. They are all five found 
in Francis. We do not believe that more than two of 10 
them can be found in any other person whatever. If 
this argument does not settle the question, there is an 
end of all reasoning on circumstantial evidence. 

The internal evidence seems to us to point the same 
way. The style of Francis bears a strong resemblance 15 
to that of Junius; nor are we disposed to admit, what 
is generally taken for granted, that the acknowledged 
compositions of Francis are very decidedly inferior to 
the anonymous letters. The argument from inferiority, 
at all events, is one which may be urged with at least 20 
equal force against every claimant that has ever been 
mentioned, with the single exception of Burke; and it 
would be a waste of time to prove that Burke was not 
Junius. And what conclusion, after all, can be drawn 
from mere inferiority ? Every writer must produce his 25 
best work; and the interval between his best work and 
his second best work may be very wide indeed. Nobody 
will say that the best letters of Junius are more de- 
cidedly superior to the acknowledged works of Francis 
than three or four of Corneille^s tragedies to the rest, 30 
than three or four of Ben Jonson's comedies to the rest, 
than the Pilgrim's Progress to the other works of Bun- 
yan, than Don Quixote to the other works of Cervantes. 
Nay, it is certain that Junius, whoever he may have 
been, was a most unequal v/riter. To go no further than 35 



WAEEEN HASTINGS I75 

the letters which bear the signature of Junius ; the letter 
to the king, and the letters to Home Tooke, have little 
in common, except the asperity; and asperity was an 
ingredient seldom wanting either in the writings or in 
5 the speeches of Francis. 

Indeed one of the strongest reasons for believing that 
Francis was Junius is the moral resemblance between 
the two men. It is not difficult, from the letters which, 
under various signatures, are known to have been writ- 

10 ten by Junius, and from his dealing with Woodfall and 
others, to form a tolerably correct notion of his charac- 
ter. He was clearly a man not destitute of real patriot- 
ism and magnanimity, a man whose vices were not of a 
sordid kind. But he must also have been a man in 

15 the highest degree arrogant and insolent, a man prone 
to malevolence, and prone to the error of mistaking 
his malevolence for public virtue. "Doest thou well to be 
angry?" was the question asked in old times of the 
Hebrew prophet. And he answered, "I do well." This 

20 was evidently the temper of Junius ; and to this cause 
we attribute the savage cruelty which disgraces several of 
his letters. No man is so merciless as he who, under a 
strong self-delusion, confounds his antipathies with his 
duties. It may be added that Junius, though allied 

25 with the democratic party by common enmities, was 
the very opposite of a democratic politician. While 
attacking individuals with a ferocity which perpetually 
violated all the laws of literary warfare, he regarded the 
most defective parts of old institutions with a respect 

30 amounting to pedantry, pleaded the cause of Old Sarum 
with, fervour, and contemptuously told the capitalists 
of Manchester and Leeds that, if they wanted votes, 
they might buy land and become freeholders of Lanca- 
shire and Yorkshire. All this, we believe, might stand. 



176 MACAULAY'S ESSAYS 

with scarcely any change, for a character of Philip 
Francis. 

It is not strange that the great anonymous writer 
should have been willing at that time to leave the coun- 
try which had been so powerfully stirred by his elo- 5 
•quence. Everything had gone against him. That party 
which he clearly preferred to every other, the party of 
George Grenville, had been scattered by the death of its 
•chief; and Lord Suffolk had led the greater part of it 
over to the ministerial benches. The ferment produced 10 
by the Middlesex election had gone down. Every fac- 
tion must have been alike an object of aversion to 
Junius. His opinions on domestic affairs separated him 
from the Ministry; his opinions on colonial affairs from 
the Opposition. Under such circumstances, he had 15 
thrown down his pen in misanthropical despair. His 
farewell letter to Woodfall bears date the nineteenth of 
January, 1773. In that letter, he declared that he must 
be an idiot to write again; that he had meant well by 
the cause and the public ; that both were given up ; that 20 
there were not ten men who would act steadily together 
on any question. "But it is all alike," he added, "vile 
and contemptible. You have never flinched that I know 
of; and I shall always rejoice to hear of your pros- 
perity." These were the last words of Junius. In a 25 
3^ear from that time, Philip Francis was on his voyage 
to Bengal. 

With the three new Councillors came out the judges 
■of the Supreme Court. The chief justice was Sir Elijah 
Impey. He was an old acquaintance of Hastings ; and 80 
it is probable that the Governor-General, if he had 
searched through all the inns of court, could not have 
found an equally serviceable tool. But the members 
of Council were by no means in an obsequious mood. 
Hastings greatly disliked the new form of government, 35 



WAKEEN HASTINGS 177 

and had no very high opinion of his coadjutors. They 
had heard of this, and were disposed to be suspicious 
and punctilious. When men are in such a frame of 
mind, any trifle is sufficient to give occasion for dis- 
5 pute. The members of Council expected a salute of 
twenty-one guns from the batteries of Fort William. 
Hastings allowed them only seventeen. They landed in 
ill-humour. The first civilities were exchanged with 
cold reserve. On the morrow commenced that long 

10 quarrel which, after distracting British India, was re- 
newed in England, and in which all the most eminent 
statesmen and orators of the age took active part on 
one or the other side. 

Hastings was supported by Barwell. They had not 

15 always been friends. But the arrival of the new mem- 
bers of Council from England naturally had the effect 
of uniting the old servants of the Company. Claver- 
ing, Monson, and Francis formed the majority. They 
instantly wrested the government out of the hands of 

20 Hastings, condemned, certainly not without justice, his 
late dealings Avith the N'abob Vizier, recalled the Eng- 
lish agent from Oude, and sent thither a creature of 
their own, ordered the brigade which had conquered 
the unhappy Eohillas to return to the Company's terri- 

25 tories, and instituted a severe inquiry into the conduct 
of the war. Next, in spite of the Governor-General's 
remonstrances, they proceeded to exercise, in the most 
indiscreet manner, their new authority over the sub- 
ordinate presidencies; threw all the affairs of Bombay 

30 into confusion ; and interfered, with an incredible union 
of rashness and feebleness, in the intestine disputes of 
the Mahratta Government. At the same time, they 
fell on the internal administration of Bengal, and 
attacked the whole fiscal and judicial system, a system 

35 which was undoubtedh' defective but which it was very 



278 MACAULAY'S ESSAYS 

improbable that gentlemen fresh from England would 
be competent to amend. The effect of their reforms 
was that all protection to life and property was with- 
drawn, and that gangs of robbers plundered and slaugh- 
tered with impunity in the very suburbs of Calcutta. 5 
Hastings continued to. live in the Government-house, 
and to draw the salary of Governor-General. He con- 
tinued even to take the lead at the council-board in the 
transaction of ordinary business; for his opponents 
could not but feel that he knew much of which they lo 
were ignorant, and that he decided, both surely and 
speedily, many questions which to them would have 
been hopelessly puzzling. But the higher powers of 
government and the most valuable patronage had been 
taken from him. 15 

The natives soon found this out. They considered 
him as a fallen man; and they acted after their kind. 
Some of our readers may have seen, in India, a cloud 
of crows pecking a sick vulture to death, no bad type 
of what happens in that country, as often fortune de- 20 
serfs one who has been great and dreaded. In an 
instant, all the sycophants who had lately been ready 
to lie for him, to forge for him, to pandar for him, to 
poison for him, hasten to purchase the favour of his 
victorious enemies by accusing him. An Indian govern- 25 
ment has only to let it be understood that it wishes a 
particular man to be ruined ; and, in twenty-four hours, 
it will be furnished with grave charges, supported by 
depositions so full and circumstantial that any person 
unaccustomed to Asiatic mendacity would regard them 30 
as decisive. It is well if the signature of the destined 
victim is not counterfeited at the foot of some illegal 
compact, and if some treasonable paper is not slipped 
into a hiding-place in his house. Hastings was now 
regarded as helpless. The power to make or mar the S5 



WAEEEN HASTINGS I79 

fortune of every man in Bengal had passed, as it seemed, 
into the hands of the new Councillors. Immediately 
charges against the Governor-General began to pour in. 
They were eagerly welcomed by the majority, who, to 
5 do them justice, were men of too much honour know- 
ingly to countenance false accusations, but w^ho were 
not sufficiently acquainted with the East to be aware 
that, in that part of the world, a very little en- 
couragement from power will call forth in a week, more 

10 Oateses, and Bedloes, and Dangerfields, than West- 
minster Hall sees in a century. 

It would have been strange indeed if, at such a Junc- 
ture, Nuncomar had remained quiet. That bad man was 
stimulated at once by malignity, by avarice, and by 

15 ambition. 'Now was the time to be avenged on his old 
enemy, to wreak a grudge of seventeen years, to estab- 
lish himself in the favour of the majority of the Coun- 
cil, to become the greatest native in Bengal. From 
the time of the arrival of the new Councillors, he had 

20 paid the most marked court to them, and had in con- 
sequence been excluded, with all indignity, from the 
Government-house. He now put into the hands of 
Francis, with great ceremony, a paper, containing sev- 
eral charges of the most serious description. By this 

25 document Hastings was accused of putting offices up 
to sale, and of receiving bribes for suffering offenders 
to escape. In particular, it was alleged that Mahommed 
Eeza Khan had been dismissed with impunit}^, in con- 
sideration of a great sum paid to the Governor-General. 

30 Francis read the paper in Council. A violent alter- 
cation followed. Hastings complained in bitter terms 
of the way in which he was treated, spoke with con- 
tempt of N'uncomar and of N"uncomar's accusation, and 
denied the right of the Council to sit in judgment on 

35 the Governor. At the next meeting of the Board, an- 



180 MACAULAY'S ESSAYS 

other communication from l^uncomar was produced. 
He requested that he might be permitted to attend the 
Council, and that he might be heard in support of his 
assertions. Another tempestuous debate took place. 
The Governor-General maintained that the council-room 5 
was not a proper place for such an investigation; that 
from persons who were heated by daily conflict with 
him he could not expect the fairness of judges; and 
that he could not, without betraying the dignity of his 
post, submit to be confronted with such a man as Nun- 10 
comar. The majority, however, resolved to go into the 
charges. Hastings rose, declared the sitting at an end, 
and left the room, followed by Barwell. The other 
members kept their seats, voted themselves a council, 
put Clavering in the chair, and ordered Nuncomar to 15 
be called in. Nuncomar not only adhered to the origi- 
nal charges, but, after the fashion of the East, produced 
a large supplement. He stated that Hastings had re- 
ceived a great sum for appointing Eajah Goordas 
treasurer of the Nabob's household, and for committing 20 
the care of his Highnesses person to the Munny Begum. 
He put in a letter purporting to bear the seal of the 
Munny Begum, for the purpose of establishing the 
truth of his story. The seal, whether forged, as Hast- 
ings affirmed, or genuine, as we are rather inclined to 25 
believe, proved nothing. Nuncomar, as everybody knows 
who knows India, had only to tell the Munny Begum 
that such a letter would give pleasure to the majority 
of the Council, in order to procure her attestation. The 
majority, however, voted that the charge was made out ; so 
that Hastings had corruptly received between thirty and 
forty thousand pounds; and that he ought to be com- 
pelled to refund. 

The general feeling among the English in Bengal was 
strongly in favour of the Governor- General. In talents 35 



WAEEEN HASTINGS 181 

for business, in knowledge of the country, in general 
courtesy of demeanour, he was decidedly superior to his 
persecutors. The servants of the Company were nat- 
urally disposed to side with the most distinguished mem- 

5 ber of their own body against a clerk from the War 
Office, who, profoundly ignorant of the native language,, 
and of the native character, took on himself to regulate 
every department of the administration. Hastings, how- 
ever, in spite of the general sympathy of his country- 

10 men, was in a most painful situation. There was still 
an appeal to higher authority in England. If that 
authority took part with his enemies, nothing was left 
to him but to throw up his office. He accordingly placed 
his resignation in the hands of his agent in London, 

15 Colonel Macleane. But Macleane was instructed not to 
produce the resignation, unless it should be fully ascer- 
tained that the feeling at the India House was adverse 
to the Governor-General. 

The triumph of Xuncomar seemed to be complete. 

20 He held a daily levee, to which his countrymen resorted 
in crowds, and to which on one occasion, the majority 
of the Council condescended to repair. His house was 
an office for the purpose of receiving charges against 
the Governor- General, It was said that, partly by 

25 threats, and partly by wheedling, the villainous Brahmin 
had induced many of the wealthiest men of the province 
to send in complaints. But he was playing a perilous 
game. It was not safe to drive to despair a man of 
such resources and of such determination as Hastings. 

30 Xuncomar, with all his acuteness, did not understand 
the nature of the institutions under which he lived. 
He saw that he had with him the majority of the body 
which made treaties, gave places, raised taxes. The 
separation between political and judicial functions was 

35 a thing of which he had no conception. It had probably 



182 MACAULAY'S ESSAYS 

never occurred to him that there was in Bengal an 
authority perfectly independent of the Council^, an 
authority which could protect one whom the Council 
washed to destroy, and send to the gibbet one whom the 
Council wished to protect. Yet such was the fact. The 5 
Supreme Court was, within the sphere of its own 
duties, altogether independent of the Government. 
Hastings, with his usual sagacity, had seen how much 
advantage he might derive from possessing himself of 
this stronghold ; and he had acted accordingly. The 10 
Judges, especially the Chief Justice, were hostile to 
the majority of the Council. The time had now come 
for putting this formidable machinery into action. 

On a sudden, Calcutta was astounded by the news 
that Nuncomar had been taken up on a charge of felony, 15 
committed, and thrown into the common gaol. The 
crime imputed to him was that six years before he had 
forged a bond. The ostensible prosecutor was a native. 
But it was then, and still is, the opinion of everybody, 
idiots and biographers excepted, that Hastings was the 20 
real mover in the business. 

The rage of the majority rose to the highest point. 
They protested against the proceedings of the Supreme 
Court, and sent several urgent messages to the Judges, 
demanding that Nuncomar should be admitted to bail. 25 
The Judges returned haughty and resolute answers. All 
that the Council could do was to heap honours and 
emoluments on the family of Nuncomar; and this they 
did. In the meantime the assizes commenced; a true 
bill was found ; and Nuncomar was brought before Sir so 
Elijah Impey and a jury composed of Englishmen. 
A great quantity of contradictory swearing, and the 
necessity of having every word of the evidence inter- 
preted, protracted the trial to a most unusual length. 
At last a verdict of guilty was returned, and the Chief 35 



WAEKEN HASTINGS 183 

Justice pronoimced sentence of death on the prisoner. 
That Impey ought to have respited Nuncomar we 
hold to be perfectly clear. Whether. the whole proceed- 
ing was not illegal, is a question. But it is certain, that 
S whatever may have been, according to technical rules 
of construction, the effect of the statute under which the 
trial took place, it was most unjust to hang a Hindoo 
for forgery. The law which made forgery capital in 
England was passed without the smallest reference to 

10 the state of society in India. It was unknown to the 
natives of India. It had never been put in execution 
among them, certainly not for want of delinquents. It 
was in the highest degree shocking to all their notions. 
They were not accustomed to the distinction which many 

15 circumstances, peculiar to our own state of society, 
have led us to make between forgery and other kinds 
of cheating. The counterfeiting of a seal was, in their 
estimation, a common act of swindling ; nor had it ever 
crossed their minds that it was to be punished as 

20 severely as gang-robbery or assassination. A just judge 
would, beyond all doubt, have reserved the case for the 
consideration of the sovereign. But Impey would not 
hear of mercy or delay. 

The excitement among all classes was great. Francis 

25 and Francis's few English adherents described the 
Governor-General and the Chief Justice as the worst 
of murderers. Clavering, it was said, swore that even 
at the foot of the gallows, Nimcomar should be rescued. 
The bulk of European society, though strongly attached 

30 to the Governor-General, could not but feel compassion 
for a man w^ho, with all his crimes, had so long filled 
so large a space in their sight, who had been great 
and powerful before the British empire in India began 
to exist, and to whom, in the old times, governors and 

35 members of Council, then mere commercial factors, had 



184 MACAULAY^S ESSAYS 

paid court for protection. The feeling of the Hindoos 
was infinitely stronger. They were, indeed, not a people 
to strike one blow for their countryman. But his sen- 
tence filled them with sorrow and dismay. Tried even 
by their low standard of morality, he was a bad man. 5 
But, bad as he w^as, he was the head of their race and 
religion, a Brahmin of the Brahmins. He had inherited 
the purest and highest caste. He had practised with 
the greatest punctuality all those ceremonies to which 
the superstitious Bengalees ascribe far more importance lo 
than to the correct discharge of the social duties. They 
felt, therefore, as a devout Catholic in the dark ages 
would have felt, at seeing a prelate of the highest dig- 
nity sent to the gallows by a secular tribunal. Accord- 
ing to their old national laws, a Brahmin could not be 15 
put to death for any crime wdiatever. And the crime 
for which Nuncomar was about to die was regarded by 
them in much the same light in which the selling of an 
unsound horse, for a sound price, is regarded by a York- 
shire jockey. 20 

The Mussulmans alone appear to have seen with ex- 
ultation the fate of the powerful Hindoo, who had 
attempted to rise by means of the ruin of Mahommed 
Eeza Khan. The Mahommedan historian of those times 
takes delight in aggravating the charge. He assures us 25 
that in Kuncomar's house a casket was found containing 
counterfeits of the seals of all the richest men of the 
province. We have never fallen in with any other 
authority for this stor}^, which in itself is by no means 
improbable. 30 

The day drew near; and Nuncomar prepared himself 
to die with that quiet fortitude with which the Bengalee, 
so effeminat-ely timid in personal conflict, often encoun- 
ters calamities for which there is no remedy. The 
sheriff, with the humanity which is seldom wanting in 35 



WAEEEN HASTINGS 185 

an English gentleman, visited the prisoner on the eve 
of the execution, and assured him that no indulgence, 
consistent with the law, should be refused to him. 
Nuncomar expressed his gratitude with great politeness 

5 and unaltered composure. Not a muscle of his face 
moved. Not a sigh broke from him. He put his finger 
to his forehead, and calmly said that fate would have 
its way, and that there was no resisting the pleasure of 
God. He sent his compliments to Francis, Clavering, 

10 and Monson, and charged them to protect Eajah Goor- 
das, who was about to become the head of the Brahmins 
of Bengal. The sheriff withdrew, greatly agitated by 
what had passed, and Nuncomar sat composedly down 
to write notes and examine accounts. 

15 The next morning, before the sun was in his power, 
an immense concourse assembled round the place where 
the gallows had been set up. Grief and horror were on 
every face; yet to the last the multitude could hardly 
believe that the English really purposed to take the life 

20 of the great Brahmin. At length the mournful proces- 
sion came through the crowd. Nuncomar sat up in his 
palanquin, and looked round him with unaltered seren- 
ity. He had just parted from those who were most 
nearly connected wdth him. Their cries and contortions 

25 had appalled the European ministers of justice, but had 
not produced the smallest effect on the iron stoicism 
of the prisoner. The only anxiety which he expressed 
was that men of his own priestly caste might be in 
attendance to take charge of his corpse. He again 

30 desired to be remembered to his friends in the Council, 
mounted the scaffold with firmness, and gave the signal 
to the executioner. The moment that the drop fell, a 
howl of sorrow and despair rose from the innumerable 
spectators. Hundreds turned away their faces from the 

35 polluting sight, fled with loud wailings towards the 



186 ' MACAULAY'S ESSAYS 

Hoogley, and plunged into its holy waters, as if to purify 
themselves from the guilt of having looked on such a 
crime. These feelings were not confined to Calcutta. 
The whole province was greatly excited ; and the popula- 
tion of Dacca, in particular, gave strong signs of griefs 
and dismay. 

Of Impey's conduct it is impossible to speak too 
severely. We have already said that, in our opinion, 
he acted unjustly in refusing to respite Nuncomar. No 
rational man can doubt that he took this course in order lo 
to gratify the Governor-General. If we had ever had 
any doubts on that point, they would have been dis- 
pelled by a letter which Mr. Gleig has published. 
Hastings, three or four years later, described Impey as 
the man "to whose support he was at one time indebted is 
for the safety of his fortune, honour, and reputation." 
These strong words can refer only to the case of Nun- 
comar; and they must mean that Impey hanged Nun- 
comar in order to support Hastings. It is, therefore, 
our deliberate opinion that Impey, sitting as a judge, 20 
put a man unjustly to death in order to serve a political 
purpose. 

But we look on the conduct of Hastings in a some- 
wliat different light. He was struggling for fortune, 
honour, liberty, all that makes life valuable. He was 25 
beset by rancorous and unprincipled enemies. From 
his colleagues he could expect no justice. He cannot 
be blamed for wishing to crush his accusers. He was 
indeed bound to use only legitimate means for that end. 
But it was not strange that he should have thought 30 
any means legitimate which were pronoimced legitimate 
by the sages of the law, by men whose peculiar duty 
it was to deal justly between adversaries, and whose 
education might be supposed to have peculiarly qualified 
them for the discharge of that duty. Nobody demands 35 



WAEEEN HASTINGS 187 

from a party the unbending equit}^ of a judge. The 
reason that judges are appointed is, that even a good 
man cannot be trusted to decide a cause in which he 
is himself concerned. Not a day passes on which an 

5 honest prosecutor does not ask for what none but a 
dishonest tribunal would grant. It is too much to expect 
that any man, when his dearest interests are at stake, 
and his strongest passions excited, will, as against himself, 
be more just than the sworn dispensers of justice. To 

10 take an analogous case from the history of our own 
island; suppose that Lord Stafford, when in the Tower 
on suspicion of being concerned in the Popish plot, had 
been apprised that Titus Gates had done something 
which might, by a questionable construction, be brought 

15 under the head of a felony. Should we severely blame 
Lord Stafford, in the supposed case, for causing a prose- 
cution to be instituted, for furnishing funds, for using 
all his influence to intercept the mercy of the Crown? 
We think not. If a judge, indeed, from favour to the 

20 Catholic lords, were to strain the law in order to hang 
Gates, such a judge would richly deserve impeachment. 
But it does not appear to us that the Catholic lord, by 
bringing the case before the judge for decision, would 
materially overstep the limits of a just self-defence. 

25 While, therefore, we have not the least doubt that 
this memorable execution is to be attributed to Hastings, 
we doubt whether it can with justice be reckoned among 
his crimes. That his conduct was dictated by a pro- 
found policy is evident. He was in a minority in Coun- 

30 cil. It was possible that he might long be in a minorit}^ 
He knew the native character well. He knew in what 
abundance accusations are certain to flow in against the 
most innocent inhabitant of India who is under the 
frown of power. There was not in the whole-black popu- 

35 lation of Bengal a place-holder, a place-hunter, a gov- 



188 MACAULAY'S ESSAYS 

eminent tenant, who did not think that he might better 
himself by sending up a deposition against the Gov- 
ernor-General. Under these circumstances, the perse- 
cuted statesman resolved to teach the whole crew of 
accusers and witnesses, that, though in a minority at 5 
the council-board, he was still to be feared. The lesson 
which he gave then was indeed a lesson not to be for- 
gotten. The head of the combination which had been 
formed against him, the richest, the most powerful, 
the most artful of the Hindoos, distinguished by the lo 
favour of those who then held the government, fenced 
round by the superstitious reverence of millions, was 
hanged in broad day before many thousands of people. 
Everything that could make the warning impressive, 
dignity in the sufferer, solemnity in the proceeding, was 15 
found in this case. The helpless rage and vain strug- 
gles of the Council made the triumph more signal. 
From that moment the conviction of every native was 
that it was safer to take the part of Hastings in a 
minority than that of Francis in a majority, and that 20 
he who was so venturous as to join in running down the 
Governor- General might chance, in the phrase of the 
Eastern poet, to find a tiger, while beating the jungle 
for a deer. The voices of a thousand informers were 
silenced in an instant. From that time, whatever diffi- 25 
culties Hastings might have to encounter, he was never 
molested by accusations from natives of India. 

It is a remarkable circumstance that one of the letters 
of Hastings to Dr. Johnson bears date a very few hours 
after the death of Nuncomar. While the whole settle- 30 
ment was in commotion, while a mighty and ancient 
priesthood were weeping over the remains of their chief, 
the conqueror in that deadly grapple sat down, with 
characteristic self-possession to write about the Tour to 



WAREEN HASTINGS iS9 

the Hebrides, Jones's Persian Grammar, and the history, 
traditions, arts, and natural productions of India. 

In the meantime, intelligence of the Eohilla war, and 
of the first disputes between Hastings and his colleagues, 

5 had reached London. The Directors took part with the 
majority, and sent out a letter filled with severe reflec- 
tions on the conduct of Hastings. They condemned, 
in strong but just terms, the iniquity of undertaking 
oflensive wars merely for the sake of pecuniary advan- 

10 tage. But they utterly forgot that, if Hastings had 
by illicit means obtained pecuniary advantages, he had 
done so, not for his own benefit, but in order to meet 
their demands. To enjoin honesty, and to insist on 
having what could not be honestly got, was then the 

15 constant practice of the Company. As Lady Macbeth 
says of her husband, they "would not play false, and 
yet would wrongly win." 

The Eegulating Act, by which Hastings had been 
appointed Governor-General for five years, empowered 

20 the Crown to remove him on an address from the Com- 
pany. Lord !N'orth was desirous to procure such an 
address. The three members of Council who had been 
sent out from England were men of his own choice. 
General Clavering, in particular, was supported by a 

25 large parliamentary connection, such as no Cabinet could 
be inclined to disoblige. The wish of the minister was 
to dis23lace Hastings, and to put Clavering at the head 
of the Government. In the Court of Directors parties 
were very nearly balanced. Eleven voted against Hast- 

30 ings; ten for him. The Court of Proprietors was then 
convened. The great sale-room presented a singular 
appearance. Letters had been sent by the Secretary of 
the Treasury, exhorting all the supporters of Govern- 
ment who held India stock to be in attendance. Lord 

35 Sandwich marshalled the friends of the administration 



190 MACALTLAY'S ESSAYS 

with his "usual dexterity and alertness. Fifty peers and 
privy councillors, seldom seen so far eastward, were 
counted in the crowd. The debate lasted till midnight. 
The opponents of Hastings had a small superiority on 
the division ; but a ballot was demanded ; and the result 5 
was that the Governor-General triumphed by a majority 
of above a hundred votes over the combined efforts of 
the Directors and the Cabinet. The ministers were 
greatly exasperated by this defeat. Even Lord North 
lost his temper, no ordinary occurrence with him, and lo 
threatened to convoke Parliament before Christmas, and 
to bring in a bill for depriving the Company of all 
political power, and for restricting it to its old business 
of trading in silks and teas. 

Colonel Macleane, who through all this conflict had 15 
zealously supported the cause of Hastings, now thought 
that his employer was in imminent danger of being 
turned out, branded with parliamentary censure, per- 
haps prosecuted. The opinion of the Crown lawyers had 
already been taken respecting some parts of the Gov- 20 
ernor-Genera?s conduct. It seemed to be high time to 
think of securing an honourable retreat. Under these 
circumstances, Macleane thought himself justified in 
producing the resignation with which he had been 
intrusted. The instrument was not in very accurate 25 
form ; but the Directors were too eager to be scrupulous. 
They accepted the resignation, fixed on Mr. Wheler, 
one of their own body, to succeed Hastings, and sent 
out orders that General Clavering, as senior member of 
Council, should exercise the functions of Governor-Gen- 30 
eral till Mr. Wheler should arrive. 

But, while these things were passing in England, a 
great change had taken place in Bengal. Monson was 
no more. Only four members of the Government were 
left. Clavering and Francis were on one side, Barwell 35 



WAEREN HASTINGS 191 

and the Governor-General on the other; and the Gov- 
ernor-General had the casting vote. Hastings, who had 
been during two years destitute of all power and patron- 
age, became at once absolute. He instantly proceeded 
3 to retaliate on his adversaries. Their measures were 
reversed : their creatures were displaced. A new valua- 
tion of the lands of Bengal, for the purposes of taxa- 
tion, was ordered: and it was provided that the whole 
inquiry should be conducted by the Governor-General, 

10 and that all the letters relating to it should run in his 
name. He began, at the same time, to revolve vast plans 
of conquest and dominion, plans which he lived to see 
realised, though not by himself. His project was to 
form subsidiary alliances with the native princes, par- 

15 ticularly with those of Oude and Berar, and thus to 
make Britain the paramount power in India. While 
he was meditating these great designs, arrived the intel- 
ligence that he had ceased to be Governor-General, that 
his resignation had been accepted, that Wheler was com- 

20 ing out immediatelv, and that, till Wheler arrived, the 
chair was to be filled by Clavering. 

Had Hastings still been in a minority, he would prob- 
ably have retired without a struggle; but he was now 
the real master of British India, and he was not dis- 

25 posed to quit his high place. He asserted that he had 
never given any instructions which could warrant the 
steps taken at home. What his instructions had been, 
he owned he had forgotten. If he had kept a copy of 
them he had mislaid it. But he was certain that he had 

30 repeatedly declared to the Directors that he would not 
resign. He could not see how the court possessed of that 
declaration from himself, could receive his resignation 
from the doubtful hands of an agent. If the resigna- 
tion were invalid, all the proceedings which were 



192 MACAULAY'S ESSAYS 

founded on that resignation were null, and Hastings 
was still Governor-General. 

He afterwards affirmed that, though his agents had 
not acted in conformity with his instructions, he would 
nevertheless have held himself bound by their acts, if 5 
Clavering had not attempted to seize the supreme power 
by violence. Whether this assertion were or were not 
true, it cannot be doubted that the imprudence of Claver- 
ing gave Hastings an advantage. The General sent for 
the keys of the fort and of the treasury, took possession lo 
of the records, and held a council at which Francis 
attended. Hastings took the chair in another apartment, 
and Barwell sat with him. Each of the two parties 
had a plausible show of right. There was no authority 
entitled to their obedience within fifteen thousand miles. 15 
It seemed that there remained no way of settling the 
dispute except an appeal to arms; and from such an 
appeal Hastings, confident of his influence over his coun- 
trj^men in India, was not inclined to shrink. He directed 
the officers of the garrison at Fort William and of all 20 
the neighbouring stations to obey no orders but his. 
At the same time, with admirable judgment, he offered 
to submit the case to the Supreme Court, and to abide 
by its decision. By making this proposition he risked 
nothing ; yet it was a proposition which his opponents 25 
could hardly reject. Nobody could be treated as a 
criminal for obeying what the judges should solemnly 
pronounce to be the lawful government. The boldest 
man would shrink from taking arms in defence of what 
the judges should pronounce to be usurpation. Claver- so 
ing and Francis, after some delay, unwillingly consented 
to abide by the award of the court. The court pro- 
nounced that the resignation was invalid, and that there- 
fore Hastings was still Governor-General under the 
Eegulating Act ; and the defeated members of the Coun- 35 



WAEEEX HASTINGS 193 

cil, finding that the sense of the whole settlement was 
against them, acquiesced in the decision. 

About this time arrived the news that, after a suit 
which had lasted several years, the Franconian courts 
5 had decreed a divorce between Imhoff and his wife. The 
Baron left Calcutta, carrying with him the means of 
buying an estate in Saxony. The lady became Mrs. 
Hastings. The event was celebrated by great festivities ; 
and all the most conspicuous persons at Calcutta, with- 

10 out distinction of parties, were invited to the Govern- 
ment-house. Clavering, as the Mahommedan chronicler 
tells the story, was sick in mind and body, and excused 
himself from joining the splendid assembly. But Hast- 
ings, whom, as it should seem, success in ambition and 

15 in love had put into high good-humour, would take no 
denial. He went himself to the General's house, and 
at length brought his vanquished rival in triumph to the 
gay circle which surrounded the bride. The e'xertion 
was too much for a frame broken by mortification as 

20 well as by disease. Clavering died a few days later. 
Wheler, who came out expecting to be Governor- 
General, and was forced to content himself with a seat 
at the council-board, generally voted with Francis. But 
the Governor-General, with Barwell's help and his own 

25 casting vote, was still the master. Some change took 
place at this time in the feeling both of the Court of 
Directors and of the Ministers of the Crown. All de- 
signs against Hastings were dropped; and, when his 
original term of five 3'ears expired, he was quietly reap- 

30 pointed. The truth is, that the fearful dangers to 
which the public interests in every quarter were now 
exposed, made both Lord North and the Company un- 
willing to part with a Governor whose talents, experi- 
ence, and resolution, enmity itself was compelled to 

35 acknowledge. 



194 MACAULAY'S ESSAYS 

The crisis was indeed formidable. That great and 
victorious empire, on the throne of which George the 
Third had taken his seat eighteen years before, with 
brighter hopes than had attended the accession of any 
of the long line of English sovereigns, had, by the most 5 
senseless misgovernment, been brought to the verge of 
ruin. In America millions of Englishmen were at war 
with the country from which their blood, their language, 
their religion, and their institutions were derived, and 
to which, but a short time before, they had been as lo 
strongly attached as the inhabitants of Norfolk and 
Leicestershire. The great powers of Europe, humbled 
to the dust by the vigour and genius which had guided 
the councils of George the Second, now rejoiced in the 
prospect of a signal revenge. The time was approaching 15 
when our island, while struggling to keep down the 
United States of America, and pressed with a still nearer 
danger by the too just discontents of Ireland, was to be 
assailed by France, Spain, and Holland, and to be 
threatened by the armed neutrality of the Baltic ; when 20 
even our maritime supremacy was to be in jeopardy; 
when hostile fleets were to command the Straits of Calpe 
and the Mexican Sea; when the British flag was to be 
scarcely able to protect the British Channel. Great as 
were the faults of Hastings, it was happy for our coun- 25 
try that at that conjuncture, the most terrible through 
which she has ever passed, he was the ruler of her 
Indian dominions. 

An attack by sea on Bengal was little to be appre- 
hended. The danger was that the European enemies of 30 
England might form an alliance with some native 
power, might furnish that power with troops, arms, and 
ammunition, and might thus assail our possessions on 
the side of the land. It was chiefly from the Mahrattas 
that Hastings anticipated danger. The original seat 35 



WAEEEN HASTINGS 195 

of that singular people was tlie wild range of hills which 
runs along the western coast of India. In the reign of 
Aurungzebe the inhabitants of those regions, led by the 
great Sevajee, began to descend on the possessions of 

5 their wealthier and less warlike neighbors. The energy, 
ferocity, and cunning of the Mahrattas, soon made them 
the most conspicuous among the new powers which were 
generated by the corruption of the decaying monarchy. 
At first they were only robbers. They soon rose to the 

10 dignity of conquerors. Half the provinces of the empire 
were turned into Mahratta principalities. Freebooters, 
sprung from low castes, and accustomed to menial em- 
ployments, became mighty Eajahs. The Bonslas, at the 
head of a band of plunderers, occupied the vast region 

15 of Berar. The Guicowar, which is, being interpreted, 
the Herdsman, founded that dynasty which still reigns 
in Guzerat. The houses of Scindia and Holkar waxed 
great in Malwa. One adventurous captain made his 
nest on the impregnable rock of Gooti. Another became 

20 the lord of the thousand villages which are scattered 
among the green rice-fields of Tanjore. 

That was the time throughout India of double gov- 
ernment. The form and the power were everywhere 
separated. The Mussulman nabobs who had become 

25 sovereign princes, the Vizier in Oude, and the Nizam at 
Hyderabad, still called themselves the viceroys of the 
House of Tamerlane. In the same manner the Mah- 
ratta states, though really independent of each other, 
pretended to be members of one empire. They all ac- 

30 knowledged, by words and ceremonies, the supremacy of 
the heir of Sevajee, a roi faineant who chewed bang and 
toyed with dancing girls in a state prison at Sattara, 
and of his Peshwa or mayor of the palace, a great 
hereditary magistrate, wdio kept a court with kingly state 



196 MACAULAY'S ESSAYS 

at Poonah, and whose authority was obeyed in the spa- 
cious provinces of Aurungabad and Bejapoor. 

Some months before war was declared in Europe the 
Government of Bengal was alarmed by the news that 
a French adventurer, who passed for a man of quality, 5 
had arrived at Poonah. It was said that he had been 
Received there with great distinction, that he had deliv- 
ered to the Peshwa letters and presents from Louis the 
Sixteenth, and that a treaty, hostile to England, had 
been concluded between France and the Mahrattas. 10 

Hastings immediately resolved to strike the first blow. 
The title of the Peshwa was not undisputed. A por- 
tion of the Mahratta nation was favourable to a pre- 
tender. The Governor- General determined to espouse 
this pretender^s interest, to move an army across the 15 
peninsula of India, and to form a close alliance with 
the chief of the house of Bonsla, who ruled Berar, and 
who, in power and dignity, was inferior to none of the 
Mahratta princes. 

The army had marched, and the negotiations with 20 
Berar were in progress, when a letter from the English 
consul at Cairo brought the news that war had been 
proclaimed both in London and Paris. All the measures 
which the crisis required were adopted by Hastings 
without a moment's delay. The French factories in 25 
Bengal were seized. Orders were sent to Madras that 
Pondicherry should instantly be occupied. Near Cal- 
cutta works were thrown up which were thought to ren- 
der the approach of a hostile force impossible. A 
maritime establishment was formed for the defence of 30 
the river. Nine new battalions of sepoys were raised, 
and a corps of native artillery was formed out of the 
hardy Lascars of the Bay of Bengal. Having made 
these arrangements, the Governor- General, with calm 
confidence, pronounced his presidency secure from all 35 



WAEKEN PIASTINGS 19^ 

attack, unless the Mahrattas should inarch against it in 
conjunction with the French. 

The expedition which Hastings had sent westward 
was not so speedily or completely successful as most of 

5 his undertakings. The commanding officer procras- 
tinated. The authorities at Bombay blundered. But 
the Governor-General persevered. A new commander 
repaired the errors of his predecessor. Several brilliant 
actions spread the military renown of the English 

10 through regions where no European flag had ever been 
seen. It is probable that, if a new and more formid- 
able danger had not compelled Hastings to change his 
whole policy, his plans respecting the Mahratta empire 
would have been carried into complete effect. 

15 The authorities in England had wisely sent out to 
Bengal, as commander of the forces and member of 
the Council, one of the most distinguished soldiers of 
that time. Sir Eyre Coote had, many years before, 
been conspicuous among the founders of the British 

20 empire in the East. At the council of war which pre- 
ceded the battle of Plassey, he earnestly recommended^ 
in opposition to the majority, that daring course which,, 
after some hesitation, was adopted, and which was 
crowned with such splendid success. He subsequently 

25 commanded in the south of India against the brave and 
unfortunate Lally, gained the decisive battle of Wande- 
wash over the French and their native allies, took Pon- 
dicherry, and made the English power supreme in the 
Carnatic. Since those great exploits near twenty years 

30 had elapsed. Coote had no longer the bodily activity 
which he had shown in earlier days ; nor was the vigour 
of his mind altogether unimpaired. He was capricious 
and fretful, and required much coaxing to keep him in 
good humour. It must, we fear, be added that the love 

35 of money had grown upon him, and that he thought 



198 MACAULAY^S ESSAYS 

more about his allowances, and less about Ms duties, 
ilian might have been expected from so eminent a mem- 
ber of so noble a profession. Still he was perhaps the 
ablest officer that was then to be found in the British 
army. Among the native soldiers his name was greats 
and his influence unrivalled. Nor is he yet forgotten 
by them. Now and then a white-bearded old sepoy 
may still be found who loves to talk of Porto Novo and 
Pollilore. It is but a short time since one of those aged 
men came to present a memorial to an English officer, lo 
W'ho holds one of the highest employments in India. 
A print of Coote hung in the room. The veteran recog- 
nised at once that face and figure which he had not seen 
ior more than half a century, and, forgetting his 
salaam to the living, halted, drew himself up, lifted is 
his hand, and with solemn reverence paid his military 
obeisance to the dead. 

Coote, though he did not, like Barwell, vote constantly 
with the Governor-General, was by no means inclined 
to join in systematic opposition, and on most questions 20 
concurred with Hastings, who did his best, by assiduous 
courtship, and by readily granting the most exorbitant 
allowances, to gratify the strongest passions of the old 
soldier. 

It seemed likely at this time that a general reconcilia- 25 
tion would put an end to the quarrels which had, during 
some years, weakened and disgraced the Government 
of Bengal. The dangers of the empire might well 
induce men of patriotic feeling — and of patriotic feeling 
neither Hastings nor Francis was destitute — ^to forget so 
private enmities, and to co-operate heartily for the gen- 
eral good. Coote had never been concerned in faction. 
Wheler was thoroughly tired of it. Barwell had made 
an ample fortune, and, though he had promised that he 
w^ould not leave Calcutta while his help was needed in 35 



WAEEEX HASTINGS 199 

Council, was most desirous to return to England, and 
exerted himself to promote an arrangement which would 
set him at libert}-. 

A compact was made, by which Francis agreed to 

5 desist from opposition, and Hastings engaged that the 
friends of Francis should be admitted to a fair share 
of the honours and emoluments of the service. During 
a few months after this treaty there was apparent 
harmony at the council-board. 

10 Harmony, indeed, was never more necessary: for at 
this moment internal calamities, more formidable than 
war itself, menaced Bengal. The authors of the Eegu- 
lating Act of 1773 had established two independent 
powers, the one judicial, and the other political; and, 

15 with a carelessness scandalously common in English 
legislation, had omitted to define the limits of either. 
The judges took advantage of the indistinctness, and 
attempted to draw to themselves supreme authority not 
only within Calcutta, but through the whole of the 

20 great territory subject to the Presidency of Fort Will- 
iam. There are few Englishmen w^ho will not admit 
that the English law, in spite of modern improvements, 
is neither so cheap nor so speedy as might be wished. 
Still, it is a system which has grown up among us. 

25 In some points it has been fashioned to suit our feel- 
ings; in others, it has gradually fashioned our feelings 
to suit itself. Even to its worst evils w^e are accus- 
tomed ; and therefore^ though we may complain of them, 
they do not strike us with the horror and dismay which 

30 would be produced by a new grievance of smaller 
severity. In India the case is widely different. English 
law, transplanted to that country, has all the vices from 
which we suffer here; it has them all in a far higher 
degree ; and it has other vices, compared with which the 

35 worst vices from which we suffer are trifles. Dilatory 



200 MACAULAY'S ESSAYS 

here, it is far more dilatory in a land where the help 
of an interpreter is needed by every judge and by 
every advocate. Costly here, it is far more costly in a 
land into which the legal practitioners must be im- 
ported from an immense distance. All English labour 5 
in India, from the labour of the Governor-General and 
the Commander-in-Chief, down to that of a groom or a 
watchmaker, must be paid for at a higher rate than at 
home. No man will be banished, and banished to the 
torrid zone, for nothing. The rule holds good with 10 
respect to the legal profession. No English barrister 
will work, fifteen thousand miles from all his friends, 
with the thermometer at ninety-six in the shade, for 
the emoluments which will content him in chambers 
that overlook the Thames. Accordingly, the fees at 15 
Calcutta are about three times as great as the fees of 
Westminster Hall; and this, though the people of India 
are, beyond all comparison, poorer than the people of 
England. Yet the delay and the expense, grievous as 
they are, form the smallest part of the evil which 20 
English law% imported without modifications into India, 
could not fail to produce. The strongest feelings of 
our nature, honour, religion, female modesty, rose up 
against the innovation. Arrest on mesne process was 
the first step in most civil proceedings ; and to a native 25 
of rank arrest was not merely a restraint, but a foul 
personal indignity. Oaths were required in every stage 
of every suit; and the feeling of a quaker about an 
oath is hardly stronger than that of a respectable native. 
That the apartments of a woman of quality should be 30 
entered by strange men, or that her face should be seen 
by them, are, in the East, intolerable' outrages, out- 
rages which are more dreaded than death, and which 
can be expiated only by the shedding of blood. To 
these outrages the most distinguished families of Ben- 35 



WAKEEN HASTINGS 201 

gal, Bahar, and Orissa were now exposed. Imagine 
what the state of our own country would be, if a juris- 
prudence were on a sudden introduced among us, which 
should be to us what our jurisprudence was to our 

5 Asiatic subjects. Imagine what the state of our country 
w^ould be, if it were enacted that any man, by merely 
swearing that a debt was due to him, should acquire a 
right to insult the persons of men of the most honour- 
able and sacred callings and of women of the most 

10 shrinking delicacy, to horsewhip a general officer, to 
put a bishop in the stocks, to treat ladies in the way 
which called forth the blow of Wat Tyler. Something 
like this was the effect of the attempt which the 
Supreme Court made to extend its jurisdiction over the 

15 whole of the Company's territory. 

A reign of terror began, of terror heightened by mys- 
tery ; for even that which was endured was less horrible 
than that which was anticipated. Xo man knew w^hat 
was next to be expected from this strange tribunal. 

20 It came from beyond the black water, as the people of 
India, with mysterious horror, call the sea. It con- 
sisted of judges not one of whom was familiar with the 
usages of the millions over whom they claimed bound- 
less authority. Its records were kept in unknown char- 

25 acters ; its sentences were pronounced in unknown 
sounds. It had already collected round itself an army 
of the worst part of the native population, informers, 
and false witnesses, and common barrators, and agents 
of chicane, and above all, a banditti of bailiff's fol- 

30 lowers, compared with whom the retainers of the worst 
English sponging-houses, in the worst times, might be 
considered as upright and tender-hearted. Many natives,, 
highly considered among their countrymen, were seized,. 

" hurried up to Calcutta, flung into the common gaol, 

35 not for any crime even imputed, not for any debt that 



^02 MACAULAY'S ESSAYS 

liad been proved, but merely as a precaution till their 
cause should come to trial. There were instances in 
which men of the most venerable dignity, persecuted 
without a cause by extortioners, died of rage and shame 
in the gripe of the vile alguazils of Impey. The harems 5 
of noble Mahommedans, sanctuaries respected in the 
East by governments which respected nothing else, were 
burst open by gangs of bailiffs. The Mussulmans, 
braver and less accustomed to submission than the Hin- 
doos, sometimes stood on their defence ; and there were 10 
instances in which they shed their blood in the door- 
way, while defending, sword in hand, the sacred apart- 
ments of their women. Nay, it seemed as if even the 
faint-hearted Bengalee, who had crouched at the feet 
of Surajah Dowlah, who had been mute during the 15 
administration of Vansittart, would at length find cour- 
age in despair. No Mahratta invasion had ever spread 
through the province such dismay as this inroad of 
English lawyers. All the injustice of former oppressors, 
Asiatic and European, appeared as a blessing when 20 
compared with the justice of the Supreme Court. 

Every class of the population, English and native, 
Avith the exception of the ravenous pettifoggers who 
fattened on the misery and terror of an immense com- 
munity, cried out loudly against this fearful oppression. 25 
But the judges were immovable. If a bailiff was resisted, 
they ordered the soldiers to be called out. If a servant 
of the Company, in conformity with the orders of the 
Government, withstood the miserable catchpoles who, 
with Impey's writs in their hands, exceeded the inso- so 
lence and rapacity of gang-robbers, he was flung into 
prison for contempt. The lapse of sixty years, the 
virtue and wisdom of many eminent magistrates who 
have during that time administered justice in the 



WAEKEN HASTINGS 203 

Supreme Court, have not effaced from the minds of the 
people of Bengal the recollection of those evil days. 

The members of the Government were, on this sub- 
ject, united as one man. Hastings had courted the 
5 judges ; he had found them useful instruments ; but he 
was not disposed to make them his own masters, or the 
masters of India. His mind was large ; his knowledge 
of the native character most accurate. He saw that the 
system pursued by the Supreme Court was degrading to 

10 the Government and ruinous to the people ; and he 
resolved to oppose it manfully. The consequence was, 
that the friendship, if that be the proper word for such 
a connection, which had existed between him and Impey, 
was for a time completely dissolved. The Government 

15 placed itself firmly between the tyrannical tribunal and 
the people. The Chief Justice proceeded to the wildest 
excesses. The Governor-General and all the members of 
Council were served with writs, calling on them to 
appear before the King's justices, and to answer for 

20 their public acts. This was too much. Hastings, with 
just scorn, refused to obey the call, set at liberty the 
persons wrongfully detained by the court, and took 
measures for resisting the outrageous proceedings of the 
sheriff's officers, if necessary, by the sword. But he 

25 had in view another device, which might prevent the 
necessity of an appeal to arms. He was seldom at a 
loss for an expedient; and he knew Impey well. The 
expedient, in this case, was a very simple one, neither 
more nor less than a bribe. Impey was, by Act of 

30 Parliament, a judge, independent of the Government of 
Bengal, and entitled to a salary of eight thousand a 
year. Hastings proposed to make him also a judge in 
"the Company's service, removable at the pleasure of 
the Government of Bengal; and to give him, in that 

35 capacity, about eight thousand a year more. It was 



204 MACAULAY'S ESSAYS 

understood that, in consideration of this new salary, 
Impey would desist from urging the high pretensions 
of his court. If he did urge these pretensions, the 
Government could, at a moment's notice, eject him from 
the new place which had been created for him. The 5 
bargain was struck; Bengal was saved; an appeal to 
force was averted ; and the Chief Justice was rich, quiet, 
and infamous. 

Of Impey's conduct it is unnecessary to speak. It 
was of a piece with almost every part of his conduct lo 
that comes under the notice of history. No other such 
judge has dishonoured the English ermine, since Jef- 
freys drank himself to death in the Tower. But we 
cannot agree with those who have blamed Hastings for 
this transaction. The case stood thus. The negligent 15 
manner in which the Eegulating Act had been framed 
put it in the power of the Chief Justice to throw a 
great country into the most dreadful confusion. He 
was determined to use his power to the utmost, unless 
he was paid to be still ; and Hastings consented to pay 20 
him. The necessity was to be deplored. It is also to 
be deplored that pirates should be able to exact ransom, 
by threatening to make their captives walk the plank. 
But to ransom a captive from pirates has always been 
held a humane and Christian act ; and it would be 25 
absurd to charge the pa3^er of the ransom with corrupt- 
ing the virtue of the corsair. This, we seriously think, 
is a not unfair illustration of the relative position of 
Impey, Hastings, and the people of India. Whether it 
was right in Impey to demand or to accept a price for 30 
powers which, if they really belonged to him, he could 
not abdicate, which, if they did not belong to him, he 
ought never to have usurped, and which in neither case 
he could honestly sell, is one question. It is quite 
another question whether Hastings was right to give any 35 



WABKEN HASTINGS 205 

sum, however large, to any man, however worthless, 
rather than either surrender millions of human beings 
to pillage, or rescue them by civil war. 

Francis strongly opposed this arrangement. It may, 

5 indeed, be suspected that personal aversion to Impey 
was as strong a motive with Francis as regard for the 
welfare of the province. To a mind burning with re- 
sentment, it might seem better to leave Bengal to the 
oppressors than to redeem it by enriching them. It is 

10 not improbable, on the other hand, that Hastings may 
have been the more willing to resort to an expedient 
agreeable to the Chief Justice, because that high func- 
tionary had already been so serviceable, and might, 
when existing dissensions were composed, be serviceable 

15 again. 

But it was not on this point alone that Francis was 
now opposed to Hastings. The peace between them 
proved to be only a short and hollow truce, during 
which their mutual aversion was constantly becoming 

20 stronger. At length an explosion took place. Hastings 
publicly charged Francis with having deceived him, 
and with having induced Barwell to quit the service 
by insincere promises. Then came a dispute, such as 
frequently arises even between honourable men, when 

25 they may make important agreements by mere verbal 
communications. An impartial historian will probably 
be of opinion that they had misunderstood each other; 
but their minds were so much embittered that they 
imputed to each other nothing less than deliberate 

30 villainy. "I do not,^' said Hastings, in a minute re- 
corded on the Consultations of the Government, "I do 
not trust to Mr. Francis's promises of candour, con- 
vinced that he is. incapable of it. I judge of his public 
conduct by his private, which I have found to be void 

35 of truth and honour." After the Council had risen, 



206 MAC AUL AY'S ESSAYS 

Francis put a challenge into the Governor-G-eneral's 
hand. It was instantly accepted. They met, and fired. 
Francis was shot through the body. He was carried 
to a neighbouring house, where it appeared that the 
wound, though severe, was not mortal. Hastings in- 5 
quired repeatedly after his enemy's health, and proposed 
to call on him; but Francis coldly declined the visit. 
He had a proper sense, he said, of the Governor- 
General's politeness, but could not consent to any pri- 
vate interview. They could meet only at the council- lo 
board. 

In a very short time it was made signally manifest to 
how great a danger the Governor-General had, on this 
occasion, exposed his country. A crisis arrived with 
which he, and he alone, was competent to deal. It is 15 
not too much to say that, if he had been taken from the 
head of affairs, the years 1780 and 1781 would have 
been as fatal to our power in Asia as to our power in 
America. 

The Mahrattas had been the chief objects of appre- 20 
hension to Hastings. The measures which he had 
adopted for the purpose of breaking their power, had at 
first been frustrated by the errors of those whom he was 
compelled to employ; but his perseverance and ability- 
seemed likely to be crowned with success, when a far 25 
more formidable danger showed itself in a distant 
quarter. 

About thirty years before this time, a Mahommedan 
soldier had begun to distinguish himself in the wars of 
Southern India. His education had been neglected ; 30 
his extraction was humble. His father had been a 
petty officer of revenue; his grandfather a wandering 
dervise. But though thus meanly descended, though 
ignorant even of the alphabet, the adventurer had no 
sooner been placed at the head of a body of troops than 35 



WAKEEN HASTINGS '^.07 

he approved himself a man born for conquest and 
command. Among the crowd of chiefs who were strug- 
gling for a share of India, none could compare with 
him in the qualities of the captain and the statesman. 

5 He became a general ; he became a sovereign. Out of 
the fragments of old principalities, which had gone 
to pieces in the general wreck, he formed for himself 
a great, compact, and vigorous empire. That empire 
he ruled with the ability, severity, and vigilance of 

10 Louis the Eleventh. Licentious in his pleasures, im- 
placable in his revenge, he had yet enlargement of mind 
enough to perceive how much the prosperity of subjects 
adds to the strength of governments. He was an op- 
pressor; but he had at least the merit of protecting his 

15 people against all oppression except his own. He was 
now in extreme old age; but his intellect was as clear, 
and his spirit as high, as in the prime of manhood. 
Such was the great Hyder Ali, the founder of the 
Mahommedan kingdom, of Mysore, and the most for- 

20 midable enemy with whom the English conquerors of 
India have ever had to contend. 

Had Hastings been governor of Madras, Hyder would 
have been either made a friend, or vigorously encoun- 
tered as an enemy. Unhappily the English authorities 

25 in the south provoked their powerful neighbour's hos- 
tility, without being prepared to repel it. On a sudden,. 
an army of ninety thousand men, far superior in disci- 
pline and efficiency to any other native force that could 
be found in India, came pouring through those wild 

30 passes which, worn by mountain torrents, and dark with 
Jungle, lead down from the table-land of Mysore to the 
plains of the Carnatic. This great army was accompa- 
nied by a hundred pieces of cannon; and its move- 
ments were guided by many French officers, trained in 

35 the best military schools of Europe. 



^08 MACAULAY'S ESSAYS 

Hyder was everywhere trmmphant. The sepoys in 
jaany British garrisons flung down their arms. Some 
iforts were surrendered by treachery, and some by de- 
spair. In a few days the whole open country north of 
the Coleroon had submitted. The English inhabitants 5 
^f Madras could already see by night, from the top of 
.Mount St. Thomas, the eastern sky reddened by a vast 
rsemicircle of blazing villages. The white villas, to 
which our countrymen retire after the daily labours 
of government and of trade, when the cool evening lo 
breeze springs up from the bay, were now left without 
inhabitants ; for bands of the fierce horsemen of Mysore 
had already been seen prowling among the tulip-trees, 
and near the gay verandas. Even the town was not 
thought secure, and the British merchants and public 15 
functionaries made haste to crowd themselves behind 
the cannon of Fort St. George. 

There were the means, indeed, of assembling an army 
which might have defended the presidency, and even 
.driven the invader back to his mountains. Sir Hector 20 
Munro was at the head of one considerable force; 
Baillie was advancing with another. United, they 
might have presented a formidable front even to such 
-an enemy as Hyder. But the English commanders, neg- 
lecting those fundamental rules of the military art of 25 
which the propriety is obvious even to men who had 
never received a military education, deferred their junc- 
tion, and were separately attacked. Baillie^s detach- 
ment was destroyed. Munro was forced to abandon 
his baggage, to fling his guns into the tanks, and to so 
save himself by a retreat which might be called a flight. 
In three weeks from the commencement of the war, 
the British empire in Southern India had been brought 
to the verge of ruin. Only a few fortified places 
Temained to. us. The glory of our arms had departed. 35 



WAEREN HASTINGS oqc) 

It was known that a great French expedition might 
soon be expected on the coast of Coromandel. England, 
beset by enemies on every side, was in no condition to 
protect such remote dependencies. 

5 Then it was that the fertile genius and serene courage 
of Hastings achieved their most signal triumph. A 
swift ship, flying before the south-west monsoon, 
brought the evil tidings in few days to Calcutta. In 
twenty-four hours the Governor-General had framed a 

10 complete plan of policy adapted to the altered state 
of affairs. The struggle with Hyder was a struggle 
for life and death. All minor objects must be sacri- 
ficed to the preservation of the Carnatic. The disputes 
with the Mahrattas must be accommodated. A large 

15 military force and a supply of money must be instantly 
sent to Madras. But even these measures would be 
insufficient, unless the war, hitherto so grossly mis- 
managed, were placed under the direction of a vigorous 
mind. It was no time for trifling. Hastings deter- 

20 mined to resort to an extreme exercise of power, to 
suspend the incapable governor of Fort St. George, to 
send Sir Eyre Coote to oppose Hyder, and to intrust 
that distinguished general with the whole administration 
of the war. 

25 In spite of the sullen opposition of Francis, who had 
now recovered from his wound, and had returned to 
the Council, the Governor-General's wise and firm policy 
was approved by the majority of the Board. The rein- 
forcements were sent off with great expedition, and- 

30 reached Madras before the French armament arrived 
in the Indian seas. Coote, broken by age and disease, 
was no longer the Coote of Wandewash ; but he was still 
a resolute and skilful commander. The progress of 
Hyder was arrested; and in a few months the great 



21/) MACAULAY'S ESSAYS 

victory of Porto Novo retrieved the honour of the 
English arms. 

In the meantime Francis had returned to England, 
and Hastings was now left perfectly unfettered. 
Wheler had gradually been relaxing in his opposition, 5 
and, after the departure of his vehement and implac- 
able colleague, co-operated heartily with the Governor- 
General, whose influence over the British in India, 
always great, had, by the vigour and success of his 
recent measures, been considerably increased. 10 

But, though the difficulties arising from factions 
within the Council were at an end, another class of 
difficulties had become more pressing than ever. The 
financial embarrassment was extreme. Hastings had 
to find the means, not only of carrying on the govern- 15 
ment of Bengal, but of maintaining a most costly war 
against both Indian and European enemies in the Car- 
natic, and of making remittances to England. A few years 
before this time he had obtained relief by plundering 
the Mogul and enslaving the Eohillas ; nor were the 20 
resources of his fruitful mind by any means exhausted. 

His first design was on Benares, a city which in 
wealth, population, dignity, and sanctity, was among 
the foremost of Asia. It was commonly believed that 
half a million of human beings was crowded into that 25 
labyrinth of lofty alleys, rich with shrines, and mina- 
rets, and balconies, and carved oriels, to which the 
sacred apes clung by hundreds. The traveller could 
scarcely make his way through the press of holy mendi- 
cants and not less holy bulls. The broad and stately 80 
flights of steps which descended from these swarming 
haunts to the bathing-places along the Ganges were 
worn every day by the footsteps of an innumerable 
multitude of worshippers. The schools and temples 
drew crowds of pious Hindoos from every province 35 



WAEEEX HASTINGS 211 

where the Brahminical faith was known. Hundreds 
of devotees came thither every month to die: for it 
was believed that a peculiarly happy fate awaited the 
man who should pass from the sacred city into the 

5 sacred river. Xor was superstition the only motive 
which allured strangers to that great metropolis. Com- 
merce had as many pilgrims as religion. All along 
the shores of the venerable stream lay great fleets of 
vessels laden with rich merchandise. From the looms 

10 of Benares went forth the most delicate silks that 
adorned the balls of St. Jameses and of the Petit 
Trianon; and in the bazars, the muslins of Bengal and 
the sabres of Oude were mingled with the jewels of 
Golconda and the shawls of Caslimere. This rich capi- 

15 tal; and the surrounding tract, had long been under the 
immediate rule of a Hindoo prince, who rendered 
homage to the Mogul emperors. During the great 
anarchy of India, the lords of Benares became inde- 
pendent of the Court of Delhi, but were compelled to 

20 submit to the authority of the IN'abob of Oude. 
Oppressed by this formidable neighbour, they invoked 
the protection of the English. The English protection 
was given ; and at length the Xabob Vizier, by a solemn 
treaty, ceded all his rights over Benares to tlie Company. 

25 From that time the Eajah was the vassal of the Govern- 
]nent of Bengal, acknowledged its supremacy, and en- 
gaged to send an annual tribute to Fort William. This 
tribute Cheyte Sing, the reigning prince, had paid with 
strict punctuality. 

30 About the precise nature of the legal relation between 
the Company and the Eajah of Benares, there has been 
much warm and acute controversy. On the one side, 
it has been maintained that Cheyte Sing was merely a 
great subject on whom the superior powder had a right 

35 to call for aid in the necessities of the empire. On the 



212 MACAULAY'S ESSAYS 

other side^ it has been contended that he was an inde- 
pendent prince, that the only claim which the Company 
had upon him was for a fixed tribute, and that, while 
the fixed tribute was regularly paid, as it assuredly was, 
the English had no more right to exact any further 5 
contribution from him than to demand subsidies from 
Holland or Denmark. Nothing is easier than to find 
precedents and analogies in favour of either view. 

Our own impression is that neither view is correct. 
It was too much the habit of English politicians to take 10 
it for granted that there was in India a known and 
definite constitution by which questions of this kind 
were to be decided. The truth is that, during the inter- 
val which elapsed between the fall of the house of 
Tamerlane and the establishment of the British ascend- 15 
ency, there was no such constitution. The old order 
of things had passed away; the new order of things 
was not yet formed. All was transition, confusion, 
«Dbscurity. Everybody kept his head as he best might, 
and scrambled for whatever he could get. There have 20 
heen similar seasons in Europe. The time of the disso- 
lution of the Carlovingian empire is an instance. Who 
would think of seriously discussing the question, what 
extent of pecuniary aid and of obedience Hugh Capet 
had a constitutional right to demand from the Duke of 25 
Erittany or the Duke or Normandy? The words "con- 
stitutional right" had, in that state of society, no mean- 
ing. If Hugh Capet laid hands on all the possessions 
'of the Duke of Normandy, this might be unjust and 
immoral ; but it would not be illegal, in the sense in so 
iradiich the ordinances of Charles the Tenth were illegal. 
If J on the other hand, the Duke of Normandy made 
war on Hugh Capet, this might be unjust and immoral ; 
but it would not be illegal in the sense in which the 
expedition of Prince Louis Bonaparte was illegal. 35 



WAKKEN HASTINGS 213' 

Very similar to this was the state of India sixty years 
ago. Of the existing governments not a single one 
could lay claim to legitimacy, or could plead any other 
title than recent occupation. There was scarcely a prov- 

5 ince in which the real sovereignty and the nominal 
sovereignty were not disjoined. Titles and forms were, 
still retained which implied that the heir of Tamerlane 
was an absolute ruler, and that the Nabobs of the prov- 
inces were his lieutenants. In realit}^, he was a captive. 

10 The Nabobs were in some places independent princes. 
In other places, as in Bengal and the Carnatic, they 
had, like their master, become mere phantoms, and the 
company was supreme. Among the Mahrattas, again, 
the heir of Sevajee still kept the title of Eajah; but he 

15 was a prisoner, and his prime minister, the Peshwa, 
had become the hereditary chief of the state. The 
Peshwa, in his turn, was fast sinking into the same 
degraded situation into which he had reduced the Eajah. 
It was, we believe, impossible to find, from the Hima- 

20 layas to Mysore, a single government which was at once 
a government de facto and a government de jure, which 
possessed the physical means of making itself feared by 
its neighbours and subjects, and which had at the same 
time the authority derived from law and long 

25 prescription. 

Hastings clearly discerned, what was hidden from 
most of his contemporaries, that such a state of things 
gave immense advantages to a ruler of great talents and 
few scruples. In every international question that could 

30 arise, he had his option between the de facto ground 
and the de jure ground; and the probability was that 
one of those grounds would sustain any claim that it 
might be convenient for him to make, and enable him 
to resist any claim made by others. In every contro- 

35 versy, accordingly, he resorted to the plea which suited 



214 MAC AUL AY'S ESSAYS 

his immediate purpose, without troubling himself in 
the least about consistency; and thus he scarcely ever 
failed to find what, to persons of short memories and 
scanty information, seemed to be a justification for 
what he wanted to do. Sometimes the Nabob of Bengal 5 
is a shadow, sometimes a monarch. Sometimes the 
Vizier is a mere deputy, sometimes an independent 
potentate. If it is expedient for the Company to show 
some legal title to the revenues of Bengal, the grant 
under the seal of the Mogul is brought forward as an 10 
instrument of the highest authority. When the Mogul 
asks for the rents which were reserved to him by that 
very grant, he is told that he is a mere pageant, that 
the English power rests on a very different foundation 
from a charter given by him, that he is welcome to play 15 
at royalty as long as he likes, but that he must expect 
no tribute from the real masters of India. 

It is true that it was in the j^ower of others, as well as 
of Hastings, to practice this legerdemain; but in the 
controversies of governments, sophistry is of little use 20 
unless it be backed by power. There is a principle 
which Hastings was fond of asserting in the strongest 
terms, and on which he acted with undeviating steadi- 
ness. It is a principle which, we must own, though it 
may be grossly abused, can hardly be disputed in the 25 
present state of public laAV. It is this, that where an 
ambiguous question arises between two governments, 
there is, if they cannot agree, no appeal except to force, 
and that the opinion of the stronger must prevail. 
Almost every question was ambiguous in India. The 30 
English Government was the strongest in India. The 
consequences are obvious. The English Government 
might do exactly what it chose. 

The English Government now chose to wring money 
out of Cheyte Sing. It had formerly been convenient 35 



WAKEEN HASTINGS 215 

to treat him as a sovereign prince; it was now conveni- 
ent to treat him as a subject. Dexterity inferior to that 
of Hastings could easily finely in the general chaos of laws 
and customs, arguments for either course. Hastings 

5 wanted a great supply. It was known that Cheyte Sing 
had a large revenue, and it was suspected that he had 
accumulated a treasure. Nor was he a favorite at Cal- 
cutta. He had, when the Governor-General was in 
great difficulties, courted the favour of Francis and 

10 Clavering. Hastings, who, less perhaps from evil passions 
than from policy, seldom left an injury unpunished, 
was not sorry that the fate of Cheyte Sing should teach 
neighbouring princes the same lesson which the fate of 
Nuncomar had already impressed on the inhabitants of 

15 Bengal. 

In 1778, on the first breaking out of the war with 
France, Cheyte Sing was called upon to pay, in addition 
to his fixed tribute, an extraordinary contribution of 
fifty thousand pounds. In 1779, an equal sum was 

20 exacted. In 1780, the demand was renewed. Cheyte 
Sing, in the hope of obtaining some indulgence, secretly 
offered the Governor-General a bribe of twenty thousand 
pounds. Hastings took the money, and his enemies 
have maintained that he took it intending to keep it. 

25 He certainly concealed the transaction, for a time, both 
from the Council in Bengal and from the Directors at 
home; nor did he ever give any satisfactory reason for 
the concealment. Public spirit, or the feai of detection, 
at last determined him to withstand the temptation. 

30 He paid over the bribe to the Company's treasury, and 
insisted that the Eajah should instantly comply with the 
demands of the English Government. The Eajah, after 
the fashion of his countrymen, shuffled, solicited, and 
pleaded poverty. The grasp of Hastings was not to be 

35 so eluded. He added to the requisition another ten 



216 MACAULAY'S ESSAYS 

thousand pounds as a fine for delay, and sent troops to 
exact the money. 

The money was paid. But this was not enough. The 
late events in the south of India had increased the 
financial embarrassments of the Company. Hastings 5 
was determined to plunder Cheyte Sing, and, for that 
end, to fasten a quarrel on him. Accordingly, the 
Eajah was now required to keep a body of cavalry for 
the service of the British Government. He objected and 
evaded. This was exactly what the Governor-General lo 
wanted. He had now a pretext for treating the wealth- 
iest of his vassals as a criminal. "I resolved," — these 
were the words of Hastings himself, — "to draw from 
his guilt the means of relief of the Company's distresses, 
to make him pay largely for his pardon, or to exact a 15 
severe vengeance for j)BiSt delinquency.'' The plan was 
simply this, to demand larger and larger contributions 
till the Eajah should be driven to remonstrate, then to 
call his remonstrance a crime, and to punish him by 
confiscating all his possessions. 20 

Cheyte Sing was in the greatest dismay. He offered 
two hundred thousand pounds to propitiate the British 
Government. But Hastings replied that nothing less 
than half a million would be accepted. K'ay, he began 
to think of selling Benares to Oude, as he had formerly 25 
sold Allahabad and Eohilcund. The matter was one 
which could not be well managed at a distance; and 
Hastings resolved to visit Benares. 

Cheyte Sing received his liege lord with every mark 
of reverence, came near sixty miles, with his guards, to 30 
meet and escort the illustrious visitor, and expressed 
his deep concern at the displeasure of the English. 
He even took off his turban, and laid it in the lap of 
Hastings, a gesture which in India marks the most 
profound submission and devotion. Hastings behaved 35 



WAEEEN HASTINGS oj^ 

with cold and repulsive severity. Having arrived at 
Benares, he sent to the Eajali a paper containing the 
demands of the Government of Bengal. The Eajah^ 
in reply, attempted to clear himself from the accnsa- 

5 tions brought against him. Hastings, who wanted money 
and not excuses, was not to be put off by the ordinary 
artifices of Eastern negotiation. He instantly ordered 
the Eajah to be arrested and placed under the custody 
of two companies of sepoys. 

10 In taking these strong measures, Hastings scarcely 
showed his usual judgment. It is possible that, having 
had little opportunity of personally observing any part 
of the population of India, except the Bengalees, he 
was not fully aware of the difference between their 

15 character and that of the tribes which inhabit the upper 
provinces. He was now in a land far more favourable 
to the vigour of the human frame than the Delta of 
the Ganges; in a land fruitful of soldiers, who have 
been found worthy to follow English battalions to the 

20 charge and into the breach. The Eajah was popular 
among his subjects. His administration had been mild ; 
and the prosperity of the district which he governed 
presented a striking contrast to the depressed state of 
Bahar under our rule, and a still more striking contrast 

25 to the misery of the provinces which were cursed by the 
tyranny of the Xabob Vizier. The national and re- 
ligious prejudices with which the English were regarded 
throughout India were peculiarly intense in the metrop- 
olis of the Brahminical superstition. It can therefore 

30 scarcely be doubted that the Governor-General, before 
he outraged the dignity of Cheyte Sing by an arrest, 
ought to have assembled a force capable of bearing dow^n 
all opposition. This had not been done. The handful 
of sepoys who attended Hastings would probably have 

35 been sufficient to overaw^e Moorshedabad, or the Black 



218 MACAULAY'S ESSAYS 

Town of Calcutta. But they were unequal to a conflict 
with the hardy rahble of Benares. The streets sur- 
rounding the palace were filled by an immense multi- 
tude, of whom a large proportion, as is usual in Upper 
India, wore arms. The tumult became a fight, and the 5 
fight a massacre. The English officers defended them- 
selves with desperate courage against overwhelming 
numbers, and fell, as became them, sword in hand. 
The sepoys were butchered. The gates were forced. 
The captive prince, neglected by his gaolers during the lO 
confusion, discovered an outlet which opened on the 
precipitous banks of the Ganges, let himself down to 
the water by a string made of the turbans of his attend- 
ants, found a boat, and escaped to the opposite shore. 

If Hastings had, by indiscreet violence, brought him- 15 
self into a difficult and perilous situation, it is only 
just to acknowledge that he extricated himself with 
even more than his usual ability and presence of mind. 
He had only fifty men with him. The building in 
which he had taken up his residence was on every side 20 
blockaded by the insurgents. But his fortitude remained 
unshaken. The Eajah from the other side of the river 
sent apologies and liberal offers. They were not even 
answered. Some subtle and enterprising men w^ere 
found w^ho undertook to pass through the throng of 25 
enemies, and to convey the intelligence of the late events 
to the English cantonments. It is the fashion of the 
natives of India to wear large earrings of gold. When 
they travel, the rings are laid aside, lest the precious 
metal should tempt some gang of robbers ; and, in place 30 
of the ring, a quill or a roll of paper is inserted in the 
orifice to prevent it from closing. Hastings placed in 
the ears of his messengers letters rolled up in the small- 
est compass. Some of these letters were addressed to 
the commanders of English troops. One was written 35 



WAEEEX HASTINGS 219 

to assure liis wife of his safety. One was to the envoy 
whom he had sent to negotiate with the Mahrattas. 
Instrnctions for the negotiation were needed ; and the 
Governor-General framed them in that situation of 
5 extreme danger, with as much composure as if he had 
been writing in his palace at Calcutta. 

Things, however, were not yet at the worst. An 
English officer of more spirit than judgment, eager to 
distinguish himself, made a premature attack on the 

10 insurgents beyond the river. His troops were entangled 
in narrow streets, and assailed by a furious population. 
He fell, with many of his men; and the survivors were 
forced to retire. 

This event produced the effect which has never failed 

15 to follow every check, however slight, sustained in India 
by the English arms. For hundreds of miles round, 
the whole country was in commotion. The entire popu- 
lation of the district of Benares took arms. The fields 
were abandoned by the husbandmen, who thronged to 

20 defend their prince. The infection spread to Oude. 
The oppressed people of that province rose up against 
the Xabob Vizier, refused to pay their imposts, and 
put the revenue officers to flight. Even Bahar was ripe 
for revolt. The hopes of Cheyte Sing began to rise. 

25 Instead of imploring mercy in the humble style of a 
vassal, he began to talk the language of a conqueror, 
and threatened, it was said, to sweep the white usurpers 
out of the land. But the English troops were now 
assembling fast. The officers, and even the private 

30 men, regarded the Governor-General with enthusiastic 
attachment, and flew^ to his aid with an alacrity which, 
as he boasted, had never been shown on any other occa- 
sion. Major Popham, a brave and skilful soldier, who 
had highly distinguished himself in the Mahratta war, 

35 and in whom the Governor-General reposed the greatest 



220 . MACAULAY'S ESSAYS 

confidence, took the command. The tumultuary army 
of the Eajah was put to rout. His fastnesses were 
stormed. In a few hours, above thirty thousand men 
left his standard, and returned to their ordinary avoca- 
tions. The unhappy prince fled from his country for- 5 
ever. His fair domain was added to the British domin- 
ions. One of his relations indeed was appointed Eajah ; 
but the Eajah of Benares was henceforth to be, like the 
i^abob of Bengal, a mere pensioner. 

By this revolution, an addition of two hundred thou- lo 
sand pounds a year was made to the revenues of the 
Company. But the immediate relief was not as great 
as had been expected. The treasure laid up by Cheyte 
Sing had been popularly estimated at a million sterling. 
It turned out to be about a fourth part of that sum; 15 
and, such as it was, it was seized by the army, and 
divided as prize-money. 

Disappointed in his expectations from Benares, 
Hastings was more violent than he would otherwise 
have been in his dealings with Oude. Sujah Dowlah 20 
had long been dead. His son and successor, Asaph-ul- 
Dowlah, was one of the weakest and most vicious even 
of Eastern princes. His life was divided between torpid 
repose and the most odious forms of sensuality. In his 
court there was boundless waste, throughout his domin- 25 
ions wretchedness and disorder. He had been, under 
the skilful management of the English Government, 
gradually sinking from the rank of an independent 
prince to that of a vassal of the Company. It was only 
by the help of a British brigade that he could be secure 30 
from the aggressions of neighbours who despised his 
weakness, and from the vengeance of subjects who de- 
tested his tyranny. A brigade was furnished, and he 
engaged to defray the charges of paying and main- 
taining it. From that time his independence was at an 35 



WAEEEN HASTINGS 231 

end. Hastings was not a man to lose the advantage 
which he had thus gained. The Xabob soon began to 
complain of the burden which he had undertaken to 
bear. His revenues, he said, were falling off; his 

5 servants were unpaid ; he could no longer support the 
expense of the arrangements which he had sanctioned. 
Hastings would not listen to these representations. The 
Vizier, he said, had invited the Government of Bengal 
to send him troops, and had promised to pay for them. 

10 The troops had been sent. How long the troops were 
to remain in Oude was a matter not settled by the treaty. 
It remained, therefore, to be settled between the con- 
tracting parties. But the contracting parties differed. 
"Who then must decide? The stronger. 

15 Hasting also argued that, if the English force was 
withdrawn, Oude would certainly become a prey to 
anarchy, and would probably be overrun by a Mahratta 
army. That the finances of Oude were embarrassed he 
admitted. But he contended, not without reason, that 

20 the embarrassment was to be attributed to the incapacity 

and vices of Asaph-ul-Dowlah himself, and that if less 

were spent on the troops, the only effect would be that 

more would be squandered on worthless favourites. 

Hastings had intended, after settling the affairs of 

25 Benares, to visit Lucknow, and there to confer with 
Asaph-ul-Dowlah. But the obsequious courtesy of the 
Xabob A^izier prevented this visit. With a small train 
he hastened to meet the Governor-Oeneral. An inter- 
view took place in the fortress which, from the crest 

30 of the precipitous rock of Chunar, looks down on the 
waters of the Ganges. 

At first sight it might appear impossible that the 
negotiation should come to an amicable close. Hastings 
wanted an extraordinary supply of money. Asaph-ul- 

35 Dowlah wanted to obtain a remission of what he already 



222 MACAULAY'S ESSAYS 

owed. Sncli a difference seemed to admit of no compro- 
mise. There was, however, one course satisfactory to 
both sides, one course by which it was possible to relieve 
the finances both of Onde and of Bengal; and that 
course was adopted. It was simply this, that the 5 
Governor-General and the Nabob Vizier should join to 
rob a third party ; and the third party whom they deter- 
mined to rob was the parent of one of the robbers. 

The mother of the late Nabob and his wife, who was 
the mother of the present Nabob, were known as the lo 
Begums or Princesses of Oude. They had possessed 
great influence over Sujah Dowlah, and had, at his 
death, been left in possession of a splendid dotation. 
The domains of which they received the rents and 
administered the government were of wide extent. The 15 
treasure hoarded by the late Nabob, a treasure which 
was popularly estimated at near three millions sterling, 
was in their hands. They continued to occupy his 
favourite palace at Fyzabad, the Beautiful Dwelling; 
while Asaph-ul-Dowlah held his court in the stately 20 
Lucknow, which he had built for himself on the shores 
of the Goomti, and had adorned with noble mosques 
and colleges. 

Asaph-ul-Dowlah had already extorted considerable 
sums from his mother. She had at length appealed to 25 
the English; and the English had interfered. A solemn 
compact had been made, by which she consented to give 
her son some pecuniary assistance, and he in his turn 
promised never to commit any further invasion of her 
rights. This compact was formally guaranteed by the 30 
Government of Bengal. But times had changed ; money 
was wanted; and the power which had given the guar- 
antee was not ashamed to instigate the spoiler to excesses 
such that even he shrank from them. 

It was necessary to find some pretext for a confisca- 35 



WAEKEN HASTINGS 223 

tion inconsistent, not merely with plighted faith, not 
merely with the ordinary rules of humanity and justice, 
but also with that great law of filial piety which, even 
in the wildest tribes of savages, even in those more 
5 degraded communities which wither under the influence 
of a corrupt half-civilisation, retains a certain authority 
over the human mind. A pretext was the last thing 
that Hastings was likely to want. The insurrection 
at Benares had produced disturbances in Oude. These 

10 disturbances it was convenient to impute to the 
Princesses*. Evidence for the imputation there was 
scarcely any; unless reports wandering from one mouth 
to another, and gaining something by every transmis- 
sion, may be called evidence. The accused were fur- 

15 nished with no charge ; they were permitted to make no 
defence; for the Governor-General wisely considered 
that, if he tried them, he might not be able to find a 
ground for plundering them. It was agreed between 
him and the Nabob Vizier that the noble ladies should, 

20 by a sweeping act of confiscation, be stripped of their 
domains and treasures for the benefit of the Company, 
and that the sums thus obtained should be accepted by 
the Government of Bengal in satisfaction of its claims 
on the Government of Oude. 

25 While Asaph-ul-Dowlah was at Chunar, he was com- 
pletely subjugated by the clear and commanding intel- 
lect of the English statesman. But, when they had 
separated, the Vizier began to reflect with uneasiness 
on the engagements into which he had entered. His 

30 mother and grandmother protested and implored. His 
heart, deeply corrupted by absolute power and licentious 
pleasures, yet not naturally unfeeling, failed him in this 
crises. Even the English resident at Lucknow, though 
hitherto devoted to Hastings, shrank from extreme 

35 measures. But the Governor-General was inexorable. 



224 MACAULAY'S ESSAYS 

He wrote to the resident in terms of the greatest sever- 
ity, and declared that, if the spoliation which had been 
agreed npon were not instantly carried into effect, he 
would himself go to Lucknow, and do that from which 
feebler minds recoil with dismay. The resident, thus 5 
menaced, waited on his Highness, and insisted that the 
treaty of Chunar should be carried into full and imme- 
diate effect. Asaph-ul-Dowlah yielded, making at the 
same time a solemn protestation that he yielded to 
compulsion. The lands were resumed ; but the treasure lo 
was not so easily obtained. It was necessary to use 
yiolence. A body of the Company's troops marched to 
Eyzabad, and forced the gates of the palace. The 
Princesses were confined to their own apartments. But 
still they refused to submit. Some more stringent 15 
mode of coercion was to be found. A mode was found 
of which, even at this distance of time, we cannot speak 
without shame and sorrow. 

There were at Fyzabad two ancient men, belonging 
to that unhappy class which a practice, of immemorial 20 
antiquity in the East, has excluded from the pleasures 
of love and from the hope of posterity. It has always 
been held in Asiatic courts that beings thus estranged 
from sympathy with their kind are those whom princes 
may most safely trust. Sujah Dowlah had been of this 25 
opinion. He had given his entire confidence to the two 
eunuchs ; and after his death they remained at the head 
of the household of his widow. 

These men were, by the orders of the British Govern- 
ment, seized, imprisoned, ironed, starved almost to so 
death, in* order to extort money from the Princesses. 
After they had been two months in confinement, their 
health gave way. They implored permission to take a 
little exercise in the garden of their prison. The officer 
who was in charge of them stated that, if they were 35 



WAEEEN HASTINGS 225 

allowed this indiTlgence, there was not the smallest 
chance of their escaping, and that their irons really 
added nothing to the securit}^ of the custody in which 
they were kept. He did not understand the plan of 

5 his superiors. Their object in these inflictions was not 
security but torture; and all mitigation was refused. 
Yet this was not the worst. It was resolved by an 
English government that these two infirm old men 
should be delivered to the tormentors. For that pur- 

10 pose they were removed to Lucknow. What horrors 

their dungeon there witnessed can only be guessed. But 

there remains on the records of Parliament, this letter, 

written by a British resident to a British soldier : 

"Sir, the ^N'abob having determined to inflict corporal 

15 punishment upon the prisoners under your guard, this is 
to desire that his officers, when they shall come, may 
have free access to the prisoners, and be permitted to do 
with them as they shall see proper.^^ 

\A^ile these barbarities were perpetrated at Lucknow, 

20 the Princesses were still under duress at Fyzabad. Food 
was allowed to enter their apartments only in such 
scanty quantities that their female attendants were in 
danger of perishing with hunger. Month after month 
this cruelty continued, till at length, after twelve hun- 

25 dred thousand pounds had been wrung out of the 
Princesses, Hastings began to think that he had really 
got to the bottom of their coffers, and that no rigour 
could extort more. Then at length the wretched men 
who were detained at Lucknow regained their liberty. 

30 When their irons were knocked off, and the doors of 
their prison opened, their quivering lips, the tears which 
ran down their cheeks, and the thanksgivings which 
they poured forth to the common Father of Mussul- 
mans and Christians, melted even the stout hearts of 

35 the English warriors who stood by. 



226 MACAULAY'S ESSAYS 

But we mnst not forget to do justice to Sir Elijah 
Impey's conduct on this occasion. It was not indeed 
easy for him to intrude himself into a business so 
entirely alien from all his official duties. But there 
was something inexpressibly alluring, we must suppose, 5 
in the peculiar rankness of the infamy which was then 
to be got at Lucknow. He hurried thither as fast as 
relays of palanquin-bearers could carry him. A crowd 
of people came before him with affidavits against the 
Begums, ready drawn in their hands. Those affidavits 10 
he did not read. Some of them, indeed, he could not 
read; for they were in the dialects of Northern India, 
and no interpreter was employed. He administered the 
oath to the deponents with all possible expedition, and 
asked not a single question, not even whether they had 15 
perused the statements to which they swore. This work 
performed, he got again into his palanquin, and posted 
jjack to Calcutta, to be in time for the opening of term. 
The cause was one which, by his own confession, lay 
altogether out of his jurisdiction. Under the charter 20 
of justice, he had no more right to inquire into crimes 
committed by Asiatics in Oude than the Lord President 
of the Court of Session of Scotland to hold an assize at 
Exeter. He had no right to try the Begums, nor did 
he pretend to try them. With what object, then, did 25 
he undertake so long a journey? Evidently in order 
that he might give, in an irregular manner, that sanc- 
tion which in a regular manner he could not give, to the 
crimes of those who had recently hired him; and in 
order that a confused mass of testimony which he did 30 
not sift, Avhich he did not even read, might acquire an 
authority not properly belonging to it, from the signa- 
ture of the highest judicial functionary in India. 

The time was approaching, however, when he was to 
be stripped of that robe which has never, since the 35 



WAKREN HASTINGS 237 

Revolution, been disgraced so foully as by him. The 
state of India had for some time occupied much of the 
attention of the British Parliament. Towards the close 
of the American war, two committees of the Commons 

5 sat on Eastern affairs. In one Edmund Burke took 
the lead. The other was under the presidency of the 
able and versatile Henry Dundas, then Lord Advocate 
of Scotland. Great as are the changes which, during 
the last sixty years, have taken place in our Asiatic 

10 dominions, the reports which those committees laid on 
the table of the House will still be found most inter- 
esting and instructive. 

There was as yet no connection between the Company 
and either of the great parties in the State. The minis- 
is ters had no motive to defend Indian abuses. On the 
contrary, it was for their interest to show, if possible^ 
that the government and patronage of our Oriental 
empire might, with advantage, be transferred to them- 
selves. The votes, therefore, which, in consequence of 

20 the reports made by the two committees, were passed 
by the Commons, breathed the spirit of stem and indig- 
nant justice. The severest epithets were applied to 
several of the measures of Hastings, especially to the 
Eohilla war ; and it was resolved, on the motion of Mr, 

25 Dundas, that the Company ought to recall a Governor- 
General who had brought such calamities on the Indian 
people, and such dishonour on the British name. An 
act was passed for limiting the jurisdiction of the 
Supreme Court. The bargain which Hastings had 

30 made with the Chief Justice was condemned in the 
strongest terms; and an address was presented to the 
King, praying that Impey might be summoned home 
to answer for his misdeeds. 

Impey was recalled by a letter from the Secretary of 

35 State. But the proprietors of India Stock resolutely 



228 MACAULAY'S ESSAYS 

refused to dismiss Hastings from their service, and 
passed a resolution affirming, what was undeniably true, 
that they were intrusted by law with the right of nam- 
ing and removing their Governor-General, and that 
they were not bound to obey the directions of a single 5 
branch of the legislature with respect to such nomination 
or removal. 

Thus supported by his employers, Hastings remained 
at the head of the Government of Bengal till the spring 
of 1785. His administration, so eventful and stormy, lo 
closed in almost perfect quiet. In the Council there 
was no regular opposition to his measures. Peace was 
restored to India. The Mahratta war had ceased. 
Hyder was no more. A treaty had been concluded with 
his son, Tippoo ; and the Carnatic had been evacuated 15 
by the armies of Mysore. Since the termination of the 
American war, England had no European enemy or 
rival in the Eastern seas. 

On a general review of the long administration of 
Hastings, it is impossible to deny that, against the 20 
great crimes by which it is blemished, we have to set 
off great public services. England had passed through a 
perilous crisis. She still, indeed, maintained her place 
in the foremost rank of European powers ; and the man- 
ner in which she had defended herself against fearful 25 
odds had inspired surrounding nations with a high 
opinion both of her spirit and of her strength. Never- 
theless, in every part of the world, except one, she had 
been a loser. Not only had she been compelled to 
acknowledge the independence of thirteen colonies 30 
peopled by her children, and to conciliate the Irish by - 
giving up the right of legislating for them ; but, in the 
^lediterranean, in the Gulf of Mexico, on the coast of 
Africa, on the continent of America, she had been com- 
pelled to cede the fruits of her victories in former wars. 35 



WAEREN HASTINGS 239 

Spain regained Minorca and Florida; France regained 
Senegal, Goree, and several West Indian islands. The 
only quarter of the world in which Britain had lost 
nothing was the quarter in which her interests had been 

5 committed to the care of Hastings. In spite of the 
utmost exertions both of European and Asiatic enemies, 
the power of our country in the East had been greatly 
augmented. Benares was subjected; the Nabob Vizier 
reduced to vassalage. That our influence had been thus 

10 extended, nay, that Fort AVilliam and Fort St. George 
had not been occupied by hostile armies, was owing, if 
we may trust the general voice of the English in India, 
to the skill and resolution of Hastings. 

His internal administration, with all its blemishes, 

15 gives him a title to be considered as one of the most 
remarkable men in our history. He dissolved the double 
government. He transferred the direction of affairs to 
English hands. Out of a frightful anarchy, he educed at 
least a rude and imperfect order. The whole organisation 

20 by which justice was dispensed, revenue collected, peace 
maintained throughout a territory not inferior in popu- 
lation to the dominions of Louis the Sixteenth or the 
Emperor Joseph, was formed and superintended by 
him. He boasted that every public office, without excep- 

25 tion, which existed when he left Bengal, was his crea- 
tion. It is quite true that this system., after all the 
improvements suggested by the experience of sixty 
years, still needs improvement, and that it was at first 
far more defective than it now is. But whoever seri- 

30 ously considers what it is to construct from the begin- 
ning the whole of a machine so vast and complex as a 
government, will allow that what Hastings effected 
deserves high admiration. To compare the most cele- 
brated European ministers to him seems to us as unjust 

35 as it would be to compare the best baker in London with 



^30 MACAULAY'S ESSAYS 

Eobinson Crusoe, who, before he could bake a single 
loaf, had to make his plough and his harrow, his fences 
and his scarecrows, his sickle and his flail, his mill and 
his oven. 

The just fame of Hastings rises still higher, when 5 
we reflect that he was not bred a statesman; that he 
was sent from school to a counting-house; and that he 
was employed during the prime of his manhood as a 
commercial agent, far from all intellectual society. 

Nor must w^e forget that all, or almost all, to whom, lo 
when placed at the head of affairs, he could apply for 
assistance, were persons who owed as little as himself, 
or less than himself, to education. A minister in 
Europe finds himself, on the first day on which he com- 
mences his functions, surrounded by experienced public is 
servants, the depositaries of official traditions. Hast- 
ings liad no such help. His own reflections, his own 
energy, were to supply the place of all Downing Street 
and Somerset House. Having had no facilities for 
learning, he was forced to teach. He had first to form 20 
himself, and then to form his instruments; and this 
not in a single department, but in all the departments 
of the administration. 

It must be added that, while engaged in this most 
arduous task, he was constantly trammelled by orders 25 
from home, and frequently borne down by a majority 
in Council. The preservation of an Empire from a 
formidable combination of foreign enemies, the con- 
struction of a government in all its parts, were accom- 
plished by him, while every ship brought out bales of 30 
censure from his emplo3^ers, and while the records of 
every consultation were filled with acrimonious minutes 
hy his colleagues. We believe that there never was a 
public man whose temper was so severely tried; not 
Marlborough, when thwarted by the Dutch Deputies ; 35 



WAEEEN HASTINGS 231 

not Wellington, when he had to deal at once with the 
Portuguese Eegency, the Spanish Juntas, and Mr. Per- 
cival. But the temper of Hastings was equal to almost 
any trial. It was not sweet; but it was calm. Quick 

5 and vigorous as his intellect was, the patience with 
which he endured the most cruel vexations, till a remedy 
could be found, resembled the patience of stupidity. 
He seems to have been capable of resentment, bitter 
and long enduring; yet his resentment so seldom hur- 

10 ried him into any blunder, that it may be doubted 
whether what appeared to be revenge was anything but 
policy. 

The effect of this singular equanimity was that he 
always had the full command of all the resources of 

15 one of the most fertile minds that ever existed. Ac- 
cordingly no complication of perils and embarrassments 
could perplex him. For every difficulty he had a con- 
trivance ready; and, w^hatever may be thought of the 
justice and humanity of some of his contrivances, it 

20 is certain that they seldom failed to serve the purpose 
for which they were designed. 

Together with this extraordinary talent for devising 
expedients, Hastings possessed, in a very high degree, 
another talent scarcely less necessary to a man in his 

25 situation; we mean the talent for conducting political 
controversy. It is as necessary to an English statesman 
in the East that he should be able to write, as it is to 
a minister in this country that he should be able to 
speak. It is chiefly by the oratory of a public man 

80 here that the nation judges of his powers. It is from 
the letters and reports of a public man in India that the 
dispensers of patronage form their estimate of him. In 
each case, the talent which receives peculiar encourage- 
ment is developed, perhaps at the expense of the other 

35 j)owers. In this country, we sometimes hear men speak 



232 MACAULAY'S ESSAYS 

above their abilities. It is not very unusual to find 
gentlemen in the Indian service who write above their 
abilities. The English politician is a little too much 
of a debater; the Indian politician a little too much of 
an essayist. 5 

Of the numerous servants of the Company who have 
distinguished themselves as framers of minutes and 
despatches, Hastings stands at the head. He was indeed 
the person who gave to the official writing of the In- 
dian governments the character which it still retains, lo 
He was matched against no common antagonist. But 
even Francis was forced to acknowledge, with sullen 
and resentful candour, that there was no contending 
against the pen of Hastings. And, in truth, the 
Governor-General's power of making out a case, of 15. 
perplexing what it was inconvenient that people should 
understand, and of setting in the clearest point of view 
whatever would bear the light, was incomparable. His 
style must be praised with some reservation. It was in 
general forcible, pure, and polished ; but it was some- 20 
times, though not often, turgid, and, on one or two occa- 
sions, even bombastic. Perhaps the fondness of Hast- 
ings for Persian literature may have tended to corrupt 
his taste. 

And, since we have referred to his literary tastes, it 25 
would be most unjust not to praise the judicious en- 
couragement which, as a ruler, he gave to liberal studies 
and curious researches. His patronage was extended, 
with prudent generosit}^, to voyages, travels, experiments, 
publications. He did little, it is true, towards intro- 30 
ducing into India the learning of the West. To make 
the young natives of Bengal familiar with Milton and 
Adam Smith, to substitute the geography, astronomy, 
and surgery of Europe for the dotages of the Brah- 
minical superstition, or for the imperfect science of 35 



WAEKEN HASTINGS 2o3' 

Ancient Greece transfused through Arabian expositions,, 
this was a scheme reserved to crown the beneficent ad- 
ministration of a far more virtuous ruler. Still it is- 
impossible to refuse high commendation to a man who,. 

5 taken from a ledger to govern an empire, overwhelmed 
by public business, surrounded by people as busy as- 
himself, and separated by thousands of leagues from 
almost all literary society, gave, both by his example 
and by his munificence, a great impulse to learning. 

10 In Persian and Arabic literature he was deeply skilled. 
With the Sanscrit he was not himself acquainted; but 
those who first brought that language to the knowledge 
of European students owed much to his encourage- 
ment. It was under his protection that the Asiatic 

15 Society commenced its honourable career. That distin- 
guished body selected him to be its first president ; but, 
with excellent taste and feeling, he declined the honour 
in favour of Sir William Jones. But the chief advan- 
tage which the students of Oriental letters derived from 

20 his patronage remains to be mentioned. The Pundits 
of Bengal had always looked with great jealousy on 
the attempts of foreigners to pry into those mysteries 
which were locked up in the sacred dialect. The Brah- 
minical religion had been persecuted by the Moham- 

25 medans. What the Hindoos knew of the spirit of the 
Portuguese Government might warrant them in appre- 
hending persecution from Christians. That apprehen- 
sion, the wisdom and moderation of Hastings removed. 
He was the first foreign ruler who succeeded in gaining 

30 the confidence of the hereditary priests of India, and 
who induced them to lay open to English scholars- 
the secrets of the old Brahminical theolog}^ and 
jurisprudence. 

It is indeed impossible to deny that, in the great 

35 art of inspiring large masses of human beings with 



:234 MACAULAY'S ESSAYS 

confidence and attachment^ no ruler ever surpassed 
Hastings. If he had made himself popular with the 
English hy giving up the Bengalees to extortion and 
oppression, or if, on the other hand, he had conciliated 
ilie Bengalees and alienated the English, there would 5 
have been no cause for wonder. What is peculiar to 
him is that, being the chief of a small band of strangers, 
who exercised boundless power over a great indigenous 
population, he made himself beloved both by the subject 
many and by the dominant few. The affection felt for 10 
him by the civil service was singularly ardent and con- 
stant. Through all his disasters and perils, his brethren 
stood by him with steadfast loyalty. The army, at the 
same time, loved him as armies have seldom loved any 
but the greatest chiefs who have led them to victory. 15 
Even in his disputes with distinguished military men, 
he could always count on the support of the military 
profession. While such was his empire over the hearts 
of his countrymen, he enjoyed among the natives a 
popularity, such as other governors have perhaps better 20 
merited, but such as no other governor has been able 
to attain. He spoke their vernacular dialects with 
facility and precision. He was intimately acquainted 
with their feelings and usages. On one or two occasions, 
for great ends, he deliberately acted in defiance of their 25 
opinion; but on such occasions he gained more in their 
respect than he lost in their love. In general, he care- 
fully avoided all that could shock their national or 
religious prejudices. His administration was indeed 
in many respects faulty ; but the Bengalee standard of 30 
good government Avas not high. Under the ^N'abobs, the 
hurricane of Mahratta cavalry had passed annually over 
the rich alluvial plain. But even the Mahratta shrank 
from a conflict with the mighty children of the sea; 
.and the immense rich harvests of the Lower Ganges 35 



WAEKEN HASTINGS 235 

were safely gathered in imcler the protection of the 
English sword. The first English conquerors had been 
more rapacious and merciless even than the Mahrattas; 
but that generation had passed away. Defective as. 

5 was the police, heavy as were the public burdens, it is 
probable that the oldest man in Bengal could not recol- 
lect a season of equal security and prosperity. For the 
first time within living memory, the province was placed 
under a government strong enough to prevent others 

10 from robbing, and not inclined to play the robber itself. 
These things inspired gooclv/ill. At the same time, the 
constant success of Hastings and the manner in which 
he extricated himself from every difficulty made him 
an object of superstitious admiration; and the more 

15 than real regal splendour which he sometimes displayed 
dazzled a people who have much in common with chil- 
dren. Even now, after the lapse of more than fifty 
years, the natives of India still talk of him as the 
greatest of the English; and nurses sing children to 

20 sleep with a jingling ballad about the fleet horses and 

richly caparisoned elephants of Sahib Warren Hostein. 

The gravest offence of which Hastings was gnilty did 

not affect his popularity with the people of Bengal; 

for those offences were committed against neighbouring 

25 states. Those offences, as our readers must have per- 
ceived, we are not disposed to vindicate; yet, in order 
that the censure may be justly apportioned to the trans- 
gression, it is fit that the motive of the criminal should 
be taken into consideration. The motive which prompted 

30 the worst acts of Hastings was misdirected and iH- 
regulated public spirit. The rules of justice, the senti- 
ments of humanity, the plighted faith of treaties, were 
in his view as nothing, when opposed to the immediate 
interest of the State. This is no justification, accord- 

85 ing to the principles either of morality, or of what we 



236 MACAULAY'S ESSAYS 

believe to be identical with morality, nameW, far-sighted 
policy. Nevertheless the common sense of mankind, 
which in questions of this sort seldom goes far wrong, 
will always recognise a distinction between crimes which 
originate in an inordinate zeal for the commonwealth, 5 
and crimes which originate in selfish cupidity. To the 
benefit of this distinction Hastings is fairly entitled. 
There is, we conceive, no reason to suspect that the 
Eohilla war, the revolution of Benares, or the spoliation 
of the Princesses of Oude, added a rupee to his for- lo 
tune. We will not affirm that, in all pecuniary dealings, 
he showed that punctilious integrity, that dread of the 
faintest appearance of evil, which is now the glory of 
the Indian civil service. But when the school in which 
he had been trained, and the temptations to which he 15 
w^as exposed are considered, we are more inclined to 
praise him for his general uprightness with respect to 
mone}^, than rigidly to blame him for a few transac- 
tions which would now be called indelicate and irregular, 
but which even now would hardly be designated as 20 
corrupt. A rapacious man he certainly was not. Had 
he been so, he would infallibly have returned to his 
country the richest subject in Europe. We speak within 
compass, when we say that, without applying any 
extraordinary pressure, he might easily have obtained 25 
from the zemindars of the Company's provinces and 
from neighboring princes, in the course of thirteen 
years, more than three millions sterling, and might 
have ou^tshone the splendour of Carlton House and of 
the Palais Royal. He brought home a fortune such as 30 
a Governor-General, fond of state, and careless of thrift, 
might easily, during so long a tenure of office, save out 
of his legal salary. Mrs. Hastings, we are afraid, was 
less scrupulous. It was generally believed that she 
accepted presents with great alacrity, and that she thus 35 



WAEEEN HASTINGS 237 

formed, without the connivance of her husband, a 
private hoard amounting to several lacs of rupees. We 
are the more inclined to give credit to this story, be- 
cause Mr. Gleig, who cannot but have heard it, does not, 

5 as far as we have observed, notice or contradict it. 

The influence of Mrs. Hastings over her husband was 
indeed such that she might easily have obtained much 
larger sums than she was ever accused of receiving. 
At length her health began to give way; and the Gov- 

10 ernor-General, much against his will, was compelled 
to send her to England. He seems to have loved her 
with that love which is peculiar to men of strong minds, 
to men whose affection is not easily won or widely dif- 
fused. The talk of Calcutta ran for some time on the 

15 luxurious manner in which he fitted up the round-house 
of an Indiaman for her accommodation, on the pro- 
fusion of sandal-wood and carved ivory which adorned 
her cabin, and on the thousands of rupees which had 
been expended in order to procure for her the society 

20 of an agreeable female companion during the voyage. 
We may remark here that the letters of Hastings to 
his wife are exceedingly characteristic. They are ten- 
der, and full of indications of esteem and confidence; 
but, at the same time, a little more ceremonious than 

25 is usual in so intimate a relation. The solemn courtesy 
with which he compliments "his elegant Marian^' re- 
minds us now and then of the dignified air with which 
Sir Charles Grandison bowed over Miss Byron's hand 
in the cedar parlour. 

30 AtteT some mOnths, Hastings prepared to follow his 
wife to England. When it was announced that he was 
about to quit his office, the feeling of the society which 
he had so long governed manifested itself by many signs. 
Addresses poured in from Europeans and Asiatics, from 

35 civil functionaries, soldiers, and traders. On the day 



238 MACAULAY'S ESSAYS 

on whicli he delivered up the ke3^s of office, a crowd of 
friends and admirers formed a lane to the quay where 
he embarked. Several barges escorted him far down 
the river; and some attached friends refused to quit 
him till the low coast of Bengal was fading from the 5 
view, and till the pilot was leaving the ship. 

Of his voyage little is known, except that he amused 
himself with books and with his pen; and that, among 
the compositions by which he beguiled the tediousness 
of that long leisure, was a pleasing imitation of Hor- 10 
ace's Otium Divos rogat. This little poem was in- 
scribed to Mr. Shore, afterwards Lord Teignmouth, a 
man of whose integrity, humanit}^, and honour, it is 
impossible to speak too highly, but who, like some other 
excellent members of the civil service, extended to the 15 
conduct of his friend Hastings an indulgence of which 
his own conduct never stood in need. 

The voyage was, for those times, very speedy. Hast- 
ings was little more than four months on the sea. In 
June 1785, he landed at Plymouth, posted to London, 20 
appeared at Court, paid his respects in Leadenhall 
Street, and then retired with his wife to Cheltenham. 

He was greatly pleased with his reception. The King 
treated him with marked distinction. The Queen, who 
had already incurred much censure on account of the 25 
favour which, in spite of the ordinary severity of her 
virtue, she had shown to the ^^elegant Marian," was not 
less gracious to Hastings. The Directors received him 
in a solemn sitting; and their chairman read to him a 
vote of thanks which they had passed without one dis- so 
sentient voice. "I find myself,'' said Hastings, in a 
letter written about a quarter of a year after his arrival 
in England, "I find myself everywhere, and universally, 
treated with evidences, apparent even to my own obser- 
vation, that I possess the good opinion of my country." 35 



WAKEEN HASTINGS 2S9 

The confident and exulting tone of his correspond- 
ence about this time is the more remarkable because 
he had already received ample notice of the attack 
which was in preparation. Within a week after he 

5 landed at Plymouth, Burke gave notice in the House 
of Commons of a motion seriously affecting a gentle- 
man lately returned from India. The Session, however^ 
was then so far advanced, that it was impossible to 
enter on so extensive and important a subject. 

10 Hastings, it is clear, was not sensible of the danger 
of his position. Indeed that sagacity, that judgment^ 
that readiness in devising expedients, which had dis- 
tinguished him in the East, seemed now to have for- 
saken him; not that his abilities were at all impaired; 

15 not that he was not still the same man who had tri- 
imphed over Francis and Nuncomar, who had made the 
Chief Justice and the Nabob Vizier his tools, who had 
deposed Cheyte Sing, and repelled H3^der Ali. But 
an oak, as Mr. Grattan finely said, should not be trans- 

20 planted at fifty. A man who having left England when 
a boy, returns to it after thirty or forty years passed in 
India, will find, be his talents what they may, that he 
has much both to learn and to unlearn before he can 
take a place among English statesmen. The working 

25 of a representative system, the war of parties, the arts 
of debate, the influence of the press, are startling novel- 
ties to him. Surrounded on every side by new machines 
and new tactics, he is as much bewildered as Hannibal 
would have been at Waterloo, or Themistocles at Trafal- 

30 gar. His very acuteness deludes him. His very vigour 
causes him to stumble. The more correct his maxims, 
when applied to the state of society to which he is 
accustomed, the more certain they are to lead him 
astray. This was strikingly the case with Hastings. 

35 In India he had a bad hand; but he was master of 



,240 MACAULAY'S ESSAYS 

the game, and he won every stake. In England he held 
excellent cards, if he had known how to play them; 
and it was chiefly by his own errors that he was brought 
to the verge of ruin. 

Of all his errors the most serious was perhaps the 5 
choice of a champion. Clive, in similar circumstances, 
had made a singularly happy selection. He put him- 
self into the hands of Wedderburn, afterwards Lord 
Loughborough, one of the few great advocates who have 
also been great in the House of Commons. To the lo 
defence of Clive, therefore, nothing was wanting, 
neither learning nor knowledge of the world, neither 
forensic acuteness nor that eloquence which charms 
political assemblies. Hastings intrusted his interests to 
a very different person, a Major in the Bengal army, 15 
named Scott. This gentleman had been sent over from 
India some time before as the agent of the Governor- 
General. It was rumoured that his services were re- 
warded with Oriental munificence; and we believe that 
he received much more than Hastings could conven- 20 
iently spare. The Major obtained a seat in Parliament, 
and was there regarded as the organ of his employer. 
It was'evidently impossible that a gentleman so situated 
could speak with the authority which belongs to an 
independent position. Nor had the agent of Hastings 25 
the talents necessary for obtaining the ear of an assem- 
bly which, accustomed to listen to great orators, had 
naturally become fastidious. He was always on his 
legs; he was very tedious; and he had only one topic, 
the merits and wrongs of Hastings. Everybody who 30 
knows the House of Commons will easily guess what 
followed. The Major was soon considered as the great- 
est bore of his time. His exertions were not confined 
to Parliament. There was hardly a day on which the 
newspapers did not contain some puff upon Hastings, 35 



WAEEEN HASTINGS 241 

signed Asiaticus or Bengalensis, but known to be written 
by the indefatigable Scott; and hardly a month in 
which some bulky pamphlet on the same subject, and 
from the same pen, did not pass to the trunkmakers 
5 and the pastry-cooks. As to this gentleman's capacity 
for conducting a delicate question through Parliament, 
our readers will want no evidence beyond that which 
the)^ will find in letters preserved in these volumes. We 
will give a single specimen of his temper and judgment. 

10 He designated the greatest man then living as "that 
reptile Mr. Burke." 

In spite, however, of this unfortunate choice, the 
general aspect of affairs was favourable to Hastings. 
The King was on his side. The Company and its serv- 

15 ants were zealous in his cause. Among public men he 
had many ardent friends. Such were Lord Mansfield, 
who had outlived the vigour of his body, but not that 
of his mind; and Lord Lansdowne, who, though uncon- 
nected with any party, retained the importance which 

20 belongs to great talents and knowledge. The ministers 
were generally believed to be favourable to the late 
Governor- General. They owed their power to the 
clamour which had been raised against Mr. Fox's East 
India Bill. The authors of that bill, when accused of 

25 invading vested rights, and of setting up powers un- 
known to the constitution, had defended themselves by 
pointing to the crimes of Hastings, and by arguing that 
abuses so extraordinary justified extraordinary meas- 
ures. Those who, by opposing that bill, had raised 

30 themselves to the head of affairs, would naturally be 
inclined to extenuate the evils which had been made the 
plea for administering so violent a remedy; and such, 
in fact, was their general disposition. The Lord Chan- 
cellor Thurlow, in particular, whose great place and 

35 force of intellect gave him a weight in the Government 



242 MACAULAY'S ESSAYS 

inferior only to that of Mr. Pitt^, espoused the cause of 
Hastings with indecorous violence. Mr. Pitt, though 
he had censured many parts of the Indian system, had 
studiously abstained from saying a word against the 
late chief of the Indian Government. To Major Scott, 5 
indeed, the young minister had in private extolled Hast- 
ings as a great, a wonderful man, who had the highest 
claims on the Government. There was only one objec- 
tion to granting all that so eminent a servant of the 
public could ask. The resolution of censure still re- 10 
mained in the journals of the House of Commons. 
That resolution was, indeed, unjust; but, till it was 
rescinded, could the minister advise the King to bestow 
any mark of approbation on the person censured? If 
Major Scott is to be trusted, Mr. Pitt declared that 15 
this was the only reason which prevented the advisers 
of the Crown from conferring a peerage on the late 
Governor-General. Mr. Dundas was the only important 
member of the administration who was deeply committed 
to a different view of the subject. He had moved the 20 
resolution which created the difficulty; but even from 
him little was to be apprehended. Since he had pre- 
sided over the committee on Eastern affairs, great 
changes had taken place. He was surrounded by new 
allies ; he had fixed his hopes on new objects ; and what- 25 
ever may have been his good qualities, — and he had 
many, — flattery itself never reckoned rigid consistency 
in the number. 

From the Ministry, therefore, Hastings had every 
reason to expect support ; and the Ministry was very 30 
powerful. The Opposition was loud and vehement 
against him. But the Opposition, though formidable 
from the wealth and influence of some of its members, 
and from the admirable talents and eloquence of others, 
was outnumbered in Parliament, and odious throughout 35 



WAEEEN HASTINGS 243 

the country. Xor, as far as we can judge, was the 
Opposition generally desirous to engage in so serious an 
undertaking as the impeachment of an Indian Gov- 
ernor. Such an impeachment must last for years. It 

5 must impose on the chiefs of the party an immense 
load of labor. Yet it could scarcely, in any manner, 
affect the event of the great political game. The fol- 
lowers of the coalition were therefore more inclined to 
revile Hastings than to prosecute him. They lost no 

10 opportunity of coupling his name with the names of the 
most hateful tyrants of whom history makes mention. 
The wits of Brooks's aimed their keenest sarcasms both 
at his public and at his domestic life. Some fine dia- 
monds which he had presented, as it was rumoured, to 

15 the royal family, and a certain richly-carved ivory bed 
which the Queen had done him the honour to accept 
from him, were favourite subjects of ridicule. One 
lively poet proposed, that the great acts of the fair 
Marian's present husband should be immortalised by 

20 the pencil of his predecessor; and that Imhoff should 
be employed to embellish the House of Commons with 
paintings of the bleeding Kohillas, of Xuncomar swing- 
ing, of Cheyte Sing letting himself down to the Ganges. 
Another, in an exquisitely humorous parody of Virgil's 

25 third eclogue, propounded the question, what that min- 
eral could be of which the rays had power to make 
the most austere of princesses the friend of a wanton. 
A third described, with gay malevolence, the gorgeous 
appearance of Mrs. Hastings at St. James's, the galaxy 

30 of jewels, torn from Indian Begums, which adorned 
her head-dress, her necklace gleaming with future 
votes, and the depending questions that shone upon her 
ears. Satirical attacks of this description, and perhaps 
a motion for a vote of censure, would have satisfied the 

35 great body of the Opposition. But there were two men 



244 MACAULAY'S ESSAYS 

whose indignation was not to be so appeased, Philip 
Francis and Edmund Bnrke. 

Francis had recently entered the House of Commons, 
and had already established a character there for indus- 
try and ability. He laboured indeed under one most un- 5 
fortunate defect, want of fluency. But he occasionally 
expressed himself with a dignity and energy worthy of 
the greatest orators. Before he had been many days 
in Parliament, he incurred the bitter dislike of Pitt, 
who constantly treated him with as much asperity as 10 
the laws of debate would allow. Neither lapse of years 
nor change of scene had mitigated the enmities which 
Francis had brought back from the East. After his 
usual fashion, he mistook his maleA^olence for virtue, 
nursed it, as preachers tell us that we ought to nurse 15 
our good dispositions, and paraded it, on all occasions, 
with Pharisaical ostentation. 

The zeal of Burke was still fiercer; but it was far 
purer. Men unable to understand the elevation of his 
mind, have tried to find out some discreditable motive 20 
for the vehemence and pertinacity which he showed 
on this occasion. But they have altogether failed. The 
idle story that he had some private slight to revenge 
has long been given up, even by the advocates of Hast- 
ings. Mr. Gleig supposes that Burke was actuated by 25 
party spirit, that he retained a bitter remembrance of 
the fall of the coalition, that he attributed that fall to 
the exertions of the East India interest, and that he 
considered Hastings as the head and the representative 
of that interest. This explanation seems to be suffi- eo 
ciently refuted by a reference to dates. The hostility of 
Burke to Hastings commenced long before the coalition ; 
and lasted long after Burke had become a strenuous 
supporter of those by whom the coalition had been 
defeated. It began when Burke and Fox, closely allied 35 



WAEKEN HASTINGS 245 

together, were attacking the influence of the Crown, 
and calling for peace with the American republic. It 
continued till Burke, alienated from Fox, and loaded 
with the favours of the Crown, died, preaching a 
5 crusade against the French republic. We surely cannot 
attribute to the events of 1784 an enmity which began 
in 1781, and which retained undiminished force long 
after persons far more deeply implicated than Hastings 
in the events of 1784 had been cordially forgiven. And 
10 why should we look for any other explanation of 
Burke's conduct than that which we find on the surface? 
The plain truth is that Hastings had committed some 
great crimes, and that the thought of those crimes made 
the blood of Burke boil in his veins. For Burke was 
15 a man in whom compassion for suffering, and hatred 
of injustice and tyranny, were as strong as in Las 
Casas or Clarkson. And although in him, as in Las 
Casas and in Clarkson, these noble feelings were alloyed 
with the infirmity which belongs to human nature, he 
20 is, like them, entitled to this great praise, that he 
devoted years of intense labour to the service of a 
people with whom he had neither blood nor language, 
neither religion nor manners in common, and from 
whom no requital, no thanks, no applause could be 
25 expected. 

His knowledge of India was such as few, even of those 
Europeans who have passed many years in that country 
have attained, and such as certainly was never attained 
by any public man who had not quitted Europe. He had 
30 studied the history, the laws, and the usages of the East 
with an industry, such as is seldom found united to so 
much genius and so much sensibility. Others have per- 
haps been equally laborious, and have collected 
an equal mass of materials. But the manner in which 
35 Burke brought his higher powers of intellect to 



246 MACAULAY'S ESSAYS 

work on statements of facts, and on tables of fig- 
ures, was peculiar to himself. In every part of 
those huge bales of Indian information which re- 
pelled almost all other readers, his mind, at once 
philosophical and poetical, found something to instruct 5 
or to delight. His reason analysed and digested those 
vast and shapeless masses; his imagination animated 
and coloured them. Out of darkness, and dulness, and 
confusion, he formed a multitude of ingenious theories 
and vivid pictures. He had, in the highest degree, that lo 
noble faculty whereby man is able to live in the past 
and in the future, in the distant and in the unreal. 
India and its inhabitants were not to him, as to most 
Englishmen, mere names and abstractions, but a real 
country and a real people. The burning sun, the 15 
strange vegetation of the palm and the cocoa-tree, the 
rice-field, the tank, the huge trees, older than the Mogul 
empire, under which the village crowds assemble, the 
thatched roof of the peasants hut, the rich tracery of 
the mosque where the imaum prays with his face to 20 
Mecca, the drums, and banners, and gaudy idols, the 
devotee swinging in the air, the graceful maiden, with 
the pitcher on her head, descending the steps to the 
riverside, the black faces, the long beards, the yellow 
streaks of sect, the turbans and the flowing robes, the 25 
spears and the silver maces, the elephants with their 
canopies of state, the gorgeous palanquin of the prince, 
and the close litter of the noble lady, all these things 
were to him as the objects amidst which his own life 
had been passed, as the objects which lay on the road 30 
between Beaconsfield and St. James's Street. All India 
was present to the eye of his mind, from the hall where 
suitors laid gold and perfumes at the feet of sovereigns 
to the wild moor where the gipsy camp was pitched, 
from the bazar, humming like a bee-hive with the crowd 35 



WARKEN HASTINGS 247 

of buyers and sellers, to the jungle where the lonely 
courier shakes his bunch of iron rings to scare away 
the hyenas. He had just as lively an idea of the insur- 
rection at Benares as of Lord George Gordon's riots, 

5 and of the execution of Nuncomar as of the execution of 
Dr. Dodd. Oppression in Bengal was to him the same 
thing as oppression in the streets of London. 

He saw that Hastings had been guilty of some most 
unjustifiable acts. All tliat followed was natural and 

10 necessary in a mind like Burke's. His imagination and 
his passions, once excited, hurried him beyond the 
bounds of justice and good sense. His reason, power- 
ful as it was, became the slave of feelings which it 
should have controlled. His indignation, virtuous in its 

15 origin, acquired too much of the character of personal 
aveTsion. He could see no mitigating circumstances, no 
redeeming merit. His temper, which, though generous 
and affectionate, had always been irritable, had now 
been made almost savage by bodily infirmities and men- 

20tal vexations. Conscious of great powers and great 
virtues, he found himself, in age and poverty, a mark 
for the hatred of a perfidious Court and a deluded 
people. In Parliament his eloquence was out of date. 
A young generation, which knew him not, had filled 

25 the*^ House? Whenever he rose to speak, his voice was 
drowned bv the unseemly interruption of lads who 
vfere in their cradles when his orations on the Stamp 
Act called forth the applause of the great Earl of 
Chatham. These things had produced on his proud and 

80 sensitive spirit an effect at which we cannot wonder. 
He could no longer discuss any question with calmness, 
or make allowance for honest differences of opinion. 
Those who think that he was more violent and acri- 
monious in debates about India than on other occasions, 

35 are ill-informed respecting the last years of his life. 



248 MACAULAY'S ESSAYS 

In the discussions on the Commercial Treaty with the 
Court of Versailles, on the Eegency, on the French 
Eeyolution, he showed even more virulence than in 
conducting the impeachment. Indeed it may be re- 
marked that the very persons who called him a mis- 5 
chievous maniac, for condemning in burning words the 
Rohilla war and the spoliation of the Begums, exalted 
him into a prophet as soon as he began to declaim, 
with greater vehemence, and not with greater reason, 
against the taking of the Bastille and the insults offered 10 
to Marie Antoinette. To us he appears to have been 
neither a maniac in the former case, nor a prophet in 
the latter, but in both cases a great and good man, led 
into extravagance by a sensibility which domineered 
over all his faculties. 15 

It may be doubted whether the personal antipathy of 
Francis, or the nobler indignation of Burke, would have 
led their party to adopt extreme measures against Hast- 
ings, if his own conduct had been judicious. He should 
have felt that, great as his public services had been, he 20 
was not faultless, and should have been content to make 
his escape, without aspiring to the honours of a triumph. 
He and his agent took a different view. They were 
impatient for the rewards which, as they conceived, 
were deferred only till Burke^s attack should be over. 25 
They accordingly resolved to force on a decisive action 
with an enemy for whom, if they had been wise, they 
would have made a bridge of gold. On the first day 
of the session of 1786, Major Scott reminded Burke 
of the notice given in the preceding year, and asked 30 
whether it was seriously intended to bring any charge 
against the late Governor-General. This challenge left 
no course open to the Opposition, except to come for- 
ward as accusers, or to acknowledge themselves calum- 
niators. The administration of Hastings had not been 35 



WAEEEN HASTIA^GIS 



2^9 



so blameless, nor was the great party of Fox and North 
so feeble, that it could be prudent to venture on so bold 
a defiance. The leaders of the Opposition instantly 
returned the only answer which they could with honour 

5 return ; and the whole party was irrevocably pledged to a 
prosecution. 

Burke began his operations by applying for Papers. 
Some of the documents for which he asked were refused 
by the ministers, who, in the debate, held language such 

10 as strongly confirmed the prevailing opinion, that the}^ 
intended to support Hastings. In April, the charges 
were laid on the table. They had been drawn by Burke 
with great ability, though in a form too much resem- 
bling that of a pamphlet. Hastings was furnished with 

15 a copy of 'the accusation; and it was intimated to him 
that he might, if he thought fit, be heard in his own 
defence at the bar of the Commons. 

Here again Hastings was pursued by the same fatality 
which had attended him ever since the day when he set 

20 foot on English ground. It seemed to be decreed that 
this man, so politic and so successful in the East, should 
commit nothing but blunders in Europe. Any judicious 
adviser would have told him that the best thing which 
he could do would be to make an eloquent, forcible, and 

25 affecting oration at the bar of the House ; but that, if he 
could not trust himself to speak, and found it necessary 
to read, he ought to be as concise as possible. Audiences 
accustomed to extemporaneous debating of the highest 
excellence are always impatient of long written compo- 
se sitions. Hastings, however, sat down as he would have 
done at the Government-house in Bengal, and prepared 
a paper of immense length. That paper, if recorded on 
the consultations of an Indian administration, would 
have been justly praised as a very able minute. But it 

35 was now out of place. It fell flat, as the best written 



250 MACAULAY'S ESSAYS 

defence must have fallen flat, on an assembly accus- 
tomed to the animated and strenuous conflicts of Pitt 
and Fox. The members, as soon as their curiosity about 
the face and demeanour of so eminent a stranger was 
satisfied, walked away to dinner, and left Hastings to 5 
tell his story till midnight to the clerks and the 
Serjeant-at-Arms. 

All preliminary steps having been duly taken, Burke, 
in the beginning of June, brought forward the charge 
relating to the Eohilla war. He acted discreetly in lO 
placing this accusation in the van; for Dundas had 
formerly moved, and the House had adopted, a resolu- 
tion condemning, in the most severe terms, the policy 
followed by Hastings with regard to Eohilcund. 
Dundas had little, or rather nothing, to say in defence 15 
of his own consistency; but he put a bold face on the 
matter, and opposed the motion. Among other things, 
he declared that, though he still thought the Eohilla 
war unjustifiable, he considered the services which 
Hastings had subsequently rendered to the State as 20 
sufficient to atone even for so great an offense. Pitt 
did not speak, but voted with Dundas; and Hastings 
w^as absolved by a hundred and nineteen votes against 
sixty-seven. 

Hastings was now confident of victory. It seemed, 25 
indeed, that he had reason to be so. The Eohilla war 
was, of all his measures, that which his accusers might 
with greatest advantage assail. It had been condemned 
by the Court of Directors. It had been condemned by 
the House of Commons. It had been condemned by 30 
Mr, Dundas, who had since become the chief minister 
of the Crown, for Indian affairs. Yet Burke, having 
chosen this strong ground, had been completely defeated 
on it. That, having failed here, he should succeed on 
any point, was generally thought impossible. It was 35 



WAKEEN HASTINGS 251 

rumoured at the clubs and coffee-houses that one or 
perhaps two more charges would be brought forward, 
that if, on those charges, the sense of the House of 
Commons should be against impeachment, the Oppo- 

5 sition would let the matter drop, that Hastings would 
be immediately raised to the peerage, decorated with the 
star of the Bath, sworn of the Privy Council, and 
invited to lend the assistance of his talents and experi- 
ence to the India Board. Lord Thurlow, indeed, some 

10 months before, had spoken with contempt of the scruples 
which prevented Pitt from calling Hastings to the 
House of Lords; and had even said that, if the Chan- 
cellor of the Exchequer was afraid of the Commons, 
there was nothing to prevent the Keeper of the Great 

15 Seal from taking the royal pleasure about a patent of 
peerage. The very title was chosen. Hastings was to 
be Lord Daylesford. For, through all changes of scene 
and changes of fortune, remained unchanged his attach- 
ment to the spot which had witnessed the greatness and 

20 the fall of his family, and which had borne so great 
a part in the first dreams of his young ambition. 

But in a very few days these fair prospects were 
overcast. On the thirteenth of June, Mr. Fox brought 
forward, with great ability and eloquence, the charge 

25 respecting the treatment of Cheyte Sing. Francis fol- 
lowed on the same side. The friends of Hastings were 
in high spirits when Pitt rose. A¥ith his usual abun- 
dance and felicity of language, the Minister gave his 
opinion on the case. He maintained that the Governor- 

30 General was justified in calling on the Eajah of Benares 
for pecuniary assistance, and in imposing a fine when 
that assistance was contumaciously withheld. He also 
thought that the conduct of the Governor-General 
during the insurrection had been distinguished by 

35 ability and presence of mind. He censured, with great 



252 MACAULAY'S ESSAYS 

bitterness, the conduct of Francis, both in India and in 
Parliament, as most dishonest and malignant. The 
necessary inference from Pitf s arguments seemed to 
be that Hastings ought to be honourably acquitted; 
and both the friends and the opponents of the Minister 5 
expected from him a declaration to that effect. To the 
astonishment of all parties, he concluded by saying that, 
though he thought it right in Hastings to fine Cheyte 
Sing for contumacy, yet the amount of the fine was too 
great for the occasion. On this ground, and on this lo 
ground alone, did Mr. Pitt, applauding every other part 
of the conduct of Hastings with regard to Benares, 
declare that he should vote in favour of Mr. Fox's 
motion. 

The House was thunderstruck ; and it well might be 15 
so. For the wrong done to Cheyte Sing, even had it been 
as flagitious as Fox and Francis contended, was a trifle 
when compared with the horrors which had been inflicted 
on Eohilcund. But if Mr. Pitt's view of the case of 
Cheyte Sing were correct, there was no ground for an 20 
impeachment, or even for a vote of censure. If the 
offence of Hastings was really no more than this, that, 
having a right to impose a mulct, the amount of which 
mulct was not defined, but was left to be settled by his 
discretion, he had, not for his own advantage, but for 25 
that of the State, demanded too much, was this an 
offence Avhich required a criminal proceeding of the 
highest solemnity, a criminal proceeding, to which, dur- 
ing sixty years, no public functionary had been sub- 
jected ? We can see, we think, in what way a man of 30 
sense and integrity might have been induced to take any 
course respecting Hastings, except the course which Mr. 
Pitt took. Such a man might have thought a great 
example necessary, for the preventing of injustice, and 
for the vindicating of the national honour, and might, 35 



WAEKEN HASTINGS 253 

on that ground, have voted for impeachment both on 
the Eohilla charge, and on the Benares charge. Such a 
man might have tliought that the offences of Hastings 
had been atoned for by great services, and might, on 

5 that ground, have voted against the impeachment, on 
both charges. With great diffidence, we give it as our 
opinion that the most correct course would, on the 
whole, have been to impeach on the Eohilla charge, and 
to acquit on the Benares charge. Had the Benares 

10 charge appeared to us in the same light in which it 
appeared to Mr. Pitt, v/e should, without hesitation, 
have voted for acquittal on that charge. The one course 
which it is inconceivable that any man of a tenth part 
of Mr. Pittas abilities can have honestly taken was the 

15 course which he took. He acquitted Hastings on the 
Eohilla charge. He softened down the Benares charge 
till it became no charge at all ; and then he pronounced 
that it contained matter for impeachment. 

]N"or must it be forgotten that the principal reason 

20 assigned by the ministry for not impeaching Hastings 
on account of the Eohilla war w^as this, that the delin- 
quencies of the early part of his administration had 
been atoned for by the excellence of the later part. Was 
it not most extraordinary that men who had held this 

25 language could afterwards vote that the later part of 
his administration furnished matter for no less than 
twenty articles of impeachment ? They first represented 
the conduct of Hastings in 1780 and 1781 as so highly 
meritorious that, like works of supererogation in the 

30 Catholic theology, it ought to be efficacious for the can- 
celling of former offences; and they then prosecuted 
him for his conduct in 1780 and 1781. 

The general astonishment was the greater, because, 
only twenty-four hours before, the members on whom 

35 the minister could depend had received the usual notes 



254 MACAULAY'S ESSAYS 

from the Treasury, begging them to be in their places 
and to vote against Mr. Fox's motion. It was asserted 
by Mr. Hastings, that, early on the morning of the very 
day on which the debate took place, Dundas called on 
Pitt, woke him, and was closeted with him many hours. 5 
The result of this conference was a determination to 
give up the late Governor-General to the vengeance of 
the Opposition. It was impossible even for the most 
powerful minister to carry all his followers with him in 
so strange a course. Several persons high in office, the lo 
Attorney-General, Mr. Grenville, and Lord Mulgrave, 
divided against Mr. Pitt. But the devoted adherents 
who stood by the head of the Government without asking 
questions, were sufficiently numerous to turn the scale. 
A hundred and nineteen members voted for Mr. Fox's 15 
motion; seventy-nine against it. Dundas silently 
followed Pitt. 

That good and great man, the late William Wilber- 
force, often related the events of this remarkable night. 
He described the amazement of the House, and the bitter 20 
reflections which were muttered against the Prime Min- 
ister by some of the habitual supporters of Government. 
Pitt himself appeared to feel that his conduct required 
some explanation. He left the treasury bench, sat for 
some time next to Mr. Wilberforce, and very earnestly 25 
declared that he had found it impossible, as a man of 
conscience, to stand any longer by Hastings. The busi- 
ness, he said, was too bad. Mr. Wilberforce, we are 
bound to add, fully believed that his friend was sincere, 
and that the suspicions to which this mysterious affair 30 
gave rise were altogether unfounded. 

Those suspicions, indeed, were such as it is painful 
to mention. The friends of Hastings, most of whom, 
it is to be observed, generally supported the adminis- 
tration, affirmed that the motive of Pitt and Dundas 35 



WAEREN HASTINGS 255 

was jea.lous}^ Hastings was personally a favourite with 
the King, He was the idol of the East India Com- 
pany and of its servants. If he were absolved by the 
Commons, seated among the Lords, admitted to the 
5 Board of Control, closely allied with the strong-minded 
and imperious Thnrlow, was it not almost certain that 
he would soon draw to himself the entire management 
of Eastern affairs? Was it not possible that he might 
become a formidable rival in the Cabinet? It had 

10 probably got abroad that very singular communications 
had taken place between Thurlow and Major Scott, 
and that, if the First Lord of the Treasury was afraid 
to recommend Hastings for a peerage, the Chancellor 
was ready to take the responsibility of that step on 

15 himself. Of all ministers, Pitt was the least likely to 
submit with patience to such an encroachment on his 
functions. If the Commons impeached Hastings, all 
danger was at an end. The proceeding, however it 
might terminate, would probably last some years. In 

20 the meantime, the accused person would be excluded 
from honours and public employments, and could 
scarcely venture even to pay his duty at Court. Such 
were the motives attributed by a great part of the public 
to the young minister, whose ruling passion was gen- 

25 erally believed to be avarice of power. 

The prorogation soon interrupted the discussions 
respecting Hastings. In the following year, those dis- 
cussions were resumed. The charge touching the spolia- 
tion of the Begums was brought forward by Sheridan, 

30 in a speech which was so imperfectly reported that it 
may be said to be wholly lost, but which was, without 
doubt, the most elaborately brilliant of all the produc- 
tions of his ingenious mind. The impression which it 
produced was such as has never been equalled. He sat 

35 down, not merely amidst cheering, but amidst the loud 



256 MACAULAY'S ESSAYS 

clapping of hands, in which the Lords below the bar 
and the strangers in the gallery joined. The excite- 
ment of the House was such that no other speaker could 
obtain a hearing; and the debate was adjourned. The 
ferment spread fast through the town. Within fours 
and twenty hours, Sheridan was offered a thousand 
pounds for the copyright of the speech, if he would 
himself correct it for the press. The impression made 
by this remarkable display of eloquence on severe and 
experienced critics, whose discernment may be sup- lo 
posed to haA^e been quickened by emulation, was deep 
and permanent. Mr. Windham, twenty years later, 
said that the speech deserved all its fame, and was, in 
spite of some faults of taste, such as were seldom want- 
ing either in the literary or in the parliamentary per- 15 
formances of Sheridan, the finest that had been 
delivered within the memory of man. Mr. Fox, about 
the same time, being asked by the late Lord Holland 
what w^as the best speech ever made in the House of 
Commons, assigned the first place, without hesitation, 20 
to the great oration of Sheridan on the Oude charge. 

When the debate was resumed, the tide ran so 
strongly against the accused that his friends were 
coughed and scraped down. Pitt declared himself for 
Sheridan's motion ; and the question was carried by a 25 
hundred and seventy-five votes against sixty-eight. 

The Opposition, flushed with victory and strongly 
supported by the public sympathy, proceeded to bring 
forward a succession of charges relating chiefly to 
pecuniary transactions. The friends of Hastings were 30 
discouraged, and, having now no hope of being able 
to avert an impeachment, were not very strenuous in 
their exertions. At length the House, having agreed 
to twenty articles of charge, directed Burke to go be- 
fore the Lords, and to impeach the late Governor- 35 



WAEKEN HASTINGS 257 

General of High Crimes and Misdemeanours. Hastings 
was at the same time arrested by the Serjeant-at-Arms, 
and carried to the bar of the Peers. 

The session was now within ten da3"s of its close. 

5 It was, therefore, impossible that an}^ progress could be 
made in the trial till the next year. Hastings was ad- 
mitted to bail; and further proceedings were postponed 
till the Houses should re-assemble. 

When Parliament met in the following winter, the 

10 Commons proceeded to elect a Committee for manag- 
ing the impeachment. Burke stood at the head; and 
with him were associated most of the leading members 
of the Opposition. But when the name of Francis was 
read a fierce contention arose. It was said that Francis 

15 and Hastings were notoriously on bad terms, that they 
had been at feud during many years, that on one 
occasion their mutual aversion had impelled them to 
seek each other^s lives, and that it would be improper 
and indelicate to select a private enemy to be a public 

20 accuser. It was urged on the other side with great 
force, particularly by Mr. Windham, that impartiality, 
though the first duty of a judge, had never been 
reckoned among the qualities of an advocate; that in 
the ordinary administration of criminal justice among 

25 the English, the aggrieved party, the very last person 
who ought to be admitted into the jury-box, is the 
prosecutor; that what was wanted in a manager was, 
not that he should be free from bias, but that he should 
be able, well informed, energetic, and active. The 

30 ability and information of Francis were admitted; and 
the very animosity with which he was reproached, 
whether a virtue or a vice, was at least a pledge for his 
energy and activity. It seems difficult to refute these 
arguments. But the inveterate hatred borne by Francis 

35 to Hastings had excited general disgust. The House 



258 MACAULAY'S ESSAYS 

decided that Francis should not be a manager. Pitt 
voted with the majority, Dundas with the minority. 

In the meantime, the preparations for the trial had 
proceeded rapidly; and on the thirteenth of February, 
1788, the sittings of the Court commenced. There 5 
have been spectacles more dazzling to the eye, more 
gorgeous with jewelry and cloth of gold, more at- 
tractive to grown-up children, than that which was then 
exhibited at Westminster; but, perhaps, there never 
was a spectacle so well calculated to strike a highly 10 
cultivated, a reflecting, and imaginative mind. All the 
various kinds of interest which belong to the near and 
to the distant, to the present and to the past, were 
collected on one spot and in one hour. All the talents 
and all the accomplishments which are developed by 15 
liberty and civilisation were now displayed, with every 
advantage that could be derived both from co-operation 
and from contrast. Every step in the proceedings 
carried the mind either backward, through many 
troubled centuries, to the days when the foundations of 20 
our constitution were laid; or far awa}^, over boundless 
seas and deserts, to dusky nations living under strange 
stars, worshipping strange gods, and writing strange . 
characters from right to left. The High Court of 
Parliament was to sit, according to forms handed down 25 
from the days of the Plantagenets, on an Englishman 
accused of exercising tyranny over the lord of the holy 
city of Benares, and over the ladies of the princely 
house of Oude. 

The place was worthy of such a trial. It was the 30 
great hall of William Eufus, the hall which had re- 
sounded with acclamations at the inauguration of thirty 
kings, the hall which had witnessed the just sentence 
of Bacon and the just absolution of Somers, the hall 
where the eloquence of Strafford had for a moment 35 



WAKEEN HASTINGS 259 

awed and melted a victorious paity inflamed with just 
resentment, the hall where Charles had confronted the 
High Court of Justice with the placid courage which 
has half redeemed his fame. Neither military nor civil 
5 pomp was wanting. The avenues were lined with 
grenadiers. The streets were kept clear by cavalry. 
The peers, robed in gold and ermine, were marshalled 
by the heralds under Garter King-at-Arms. The 
judges in their vestments of state attended to give 

10 advice on points of law. Near a hundred and seventy 
lords, three-fourths of the Upper House as the Upper 
House then was, walked in solemn order from their 
usual place of assembling to the tribunal. The junior 
Baron present led the way, George Eliott, Lord Heath- 

15 field, recently ennobled for his memorable defence of 
Gibraltar against the fleets and armies of France and 
Spain. The long procession was closed by the Duke of 
Norfolk, Earl Marshal of the realm, by the great 
dignitaries, and by the brothers and sons of the King, 

20 Last of all came the Prince of Wales, conspicuous by 
his fine person and noble bearing. The grey old walls 
were hung with scarlet. The long galleries were 
crowded by an audience such as has rarely excited the 
fears or the emulation of an orator. There were 

25 gathered together, from all parts of a great, free, en- 
lightened, and prosperous empire, grace and female 
loveliness, wit and learning, the representatives of 
every science and of every art. There were seated 
round the Queen the fair-haired young daughters of 

30 the house of Brunswick. There the Ambassadors of 
great Kings and Commonwealths gazed with admira- 
tion on a spectacle which no other country in the world 
could present. There Siddons, in the prime of her 
majestic beauty, looked with emotion on a scene sur- 

35 passing all the imitations of the stage. There the 



360 MACAULAY'S ESSAYS j 

historian of the Eoman Empire thought of the days 
when Cicero pleaded the cause of Sicily against Verres, 
and when, before a senate which still retained some 
show of freedom, Tacitus thundered against the 
oppressor of Africa. There were seen, side by side, the 5 
greatest painter and the greatest scholar of the age. 
The spectacle had allured Eeynolds from that easel 
which has preserved to us the thoughtful foreheads of 
so many writers and statesmen, and the sweet smiles of 
so many noble matrons. It had induced Parr to sus- lo 
pend his labours in that dark and profound mine from 
which he had extracted a vast treasure of erudition, a 
treasure too often buried in the earth, too often paraded 
with injudicious and inelegant ostentation, but still 
precious, massive, and splendid. There appeared the la 
voluptuous charms of her to whom the heir of the 
throne had in secret plighted his faith. There too was 
she, the beautiful mother of a beautiful race, the Saint . 
Cecilia, whose delicate features, lighted up by love and 
music, art has rescued from the common decay. There 20 
were the members of that brilliant society which 
quoted, criticised, and exchanged repartees, under the 
rich peacock hangings of Mrs. Montague. And there 
the ladies whose lips, more persuasive than those of 
Pox himself, had carried the Westminster election 25 
against palace and treasury, shone round Georgiana, 
Duchess of Devonshire. 

The Serjeants made proclamation. Hastings ad- 
vanced to the bar, and bent his knee. The culprit was 
Indeed not unworthy of that great presence. He had 30 
ruled an extensive and populous country, had made 
laws and treaties, had sent forth armies, had set up 
and pulled down princes. And in his high place he 
liad so borne himself, that all had feared him, that 
most had loved him, and that hatred itself could deny 35 



WAKEEN HASTINGS 261 

him no title to glory, except virtue. He looked like 
a great man, and not like a bad man. A person small 
and emaciated, yet deriving dignity from a carriage 
which, while it indicated deference to the Court, in- 

5 dicated also habitual self-possession and self-respect, a 
high and intellectual forehead, a brow pensive, but not 
gloomy, a mouth of inflexible decision, a face pale and 
worn, but serene, on which was written, as legibly as 
under the picture in the council-chamber at Calcutta, 

.0 Mens cequa in arduis; such was the aspect w^ith which 
the great proconsul presented himself to his judges. 

His counsel accompanied him, men all of whom were 
afterwards raised by their talents and learning to the 
highest posts in their profession, the bold and strong- 

.5 minded Law, afterwards Chief Justice of the King's 
Bench; the more humane and eloquent Dallas, after- 
wards Chief Justice of the Common Pleas; and 
Plomer, who, near twenty years later, successfully con- 
ducted in the same high court the defence of Lord 

Melville, and subsequently became Vice-chancellor and 
Master of the Eolls. 

But neither the culprit nor his advocates attracted so 
much notice as the accusers. In the midst of the blaze 
of red drapery, a space had been fitted up w4th green 

5 benches and tables for the Commons. The managers, 
with Burke at their head, appeared in full dress. The 
collectors of gossip did not fail to remark that even 
Fox, generally so regardless of his appearance, had paid 
to the illustrious tribunal the compliment of wearing 

a bag and sword. Pitt had refused to be one of the 
conductors of the impeachment; and his commanding, 
copious, and sonorous eloquence was wanting to that 
great muster of various talents. Age and blindness 
had unfitted Lord North for the duties of a public 

5 prosecutor; and his friends were left without the help 



262 MACAULAY'S ESSAYS 

of his excellent sense, his tact and his urbanit}'. But in 
spite of the absence of these two distinguished members 
of the Lower House, the box in which the managers 
stood contained an array of speakers such as perhaps 
had not appeared together since the great age of ' 
Athenian eloquence. There were Fox and Sheridan, 
the English Demosthenes and the English Hyperides. 
There was Burke, ignorant indeed or negligent of the 
art of adapting his reasonings and his style to the capa- 
city and taste of'Jiis hearers, but in amplitude of com- M 
prehension and richness of imagination superior to every 
orator, ancient or modern. There, with eyes reveren- 
tially fixed on Burke, appeared the finest gentleman of > 
the age, his fonii developed by every manly exercise, 
his face beaming with intelligence and spirit, the i 
ingenious, the chivalrous, the high-souled Windham. 
Nor, though surrounded by such men, did the youngest 
manager pass unnoticed. At an age when most of 
those who distinguish themselves in life are still con- 
tending for prizes and fellowships at college, he had 2 
won for himself a conspicuous place in Parliament. 
Xo advantage of fortune or connection was wanting 
that could set off to tlie height his splendid talents and 
his unblemished honour. At twenty-three he had been 
lliought worthy to be ranked with the veteran states- 2 
men who appeared as the delegates of the British 
Commons, at the bar of the British nobility. All who 
stood at that bar, save him alone, are gone, culprit, 
advocates, accusers. To the generation which is now 
in the vigour of life, he is the sole representative of a 3* 
great age which has passed away. But those who, 
within the last ten years, have listened with delight, 
till the morning sun shone on the tapestries of the 
House of Lords, to the lofty and animated eloquence 
of Charles Earl Grey, are able to form some estimate 3 



WAEKEK HASTINGS 263 

of the powers of a race of men among whom he was 
not the foremost. „ , 

The charges and the answers of Hastmgs were iir.t 
read The ceremony occupied two whole days and was 
S rendered less ted.ous than H would otherwise ha^-e been 
by the silver voice and just emphasis of Cowper, the 
clerk of the court, a near relation of the amiable poet. 
On the third day Burke rose. Four sittings were occu- 
pied bv his opening speech, which was intended to be a 
10 general introduction to all the charges ^A ith an 
fxuberance of thought and a splendour of diction w^nch 
more than satisfied the highly raised expectation ot 
the audience, he described the character and institutions 
of the natives of India, recounted the circumstances m 
,5 which the Asiatic empire of Britain had origmated and 
set forth the constitution of the Company and of the 
English Presidencies. Having thus attempted to com- 
municate to his hearers an idea of Eastern socie y, as 
viY^d as that which existed in his own nwnd he 
20 proceeded to arraign the administration of Hastmgs 
as svstematicallv conducted in defiance of morality and 
public law. The energy and pathos of the great orator 
extorted expressions of unwonted admiration from the 
stern and hostile Chancellor, and, for a moment, seemed 
25 to pierce even the resolute heart of the defendant. The 
ladies in the galleries, unaccustomed to such displays 
of eloquence, excited by the solemnity of tbe occasion 
and perhaps not unwilling to display their taste and 
sensibilitv, were in a state of uncontrollable emotion. 
30 Handkerchiefs were pulled out; smelling bottles were 
handed round; hysterical sobs and screanis were heaid 
and Mrs. Sheridan was carried out m a £*• At 'eng m 
the orator concluded. Eaising his voice ti 11 the old 
arches of Irish oak resounded, "There ore," said he, 
35 "hath it with all confidence been ordered, by the Com- 



264 MACAULAY'S ESSAYS 

mons of Great Britain, that I impeach Warren Hastings 
of high crimes and misdemeanours. I impeach him 
in the name of the Commons' House of Parliament, 
whose trust he has betrayed. I impeach him in the 
name of the English nation, whose ancient honour he 5 
has sullied. I impeach him in the name of the people 
of India, whose rights he has trodden under foot, and 
whose country he has turned into a desert. Lastly, in 
the name of human nature itself, in the name of both 
sexes, in the name of every age, in the name of every 10 
rank, I impeach the common enemy and oppressor of 
all !" 

When the deep murmur of various emotions had sub- 
sided, Mr. Fox rose to address the Lords respecting the 
course of proceeding to be followed. The wish of the 15 
accusers was that the Court would bring to a close the 
investigation of the first charge before the second was 
opened. The wish of Hastings and of his counsel was 
that the managers should open all the charges, and 
produce all the evidence for the prosecution, before the 20 
defence began. The Lords retired to their own House 
to consider the question. The Chancellor took the side 
of Hastings. Lord Loughborough, who was now in 
opposition, supported the demand of the managers. The 
division showed which way the inclination of the 25 
tribunal leaned. A majority of near three to one 
decided in favour of the course for which Hastings 
contended. 

When the Court sat again, Mr. Fox, assisted by Mr. 
Grey, opened the charge respecting Cheyte Sing, and 30 
several days were spent in reading papers and hearing 
witnesses. The next article was that relating to the 
Princesses of Oude. The conduct of this part of the 
case was intrusted to Sheridan. The curiosity of the 
public to hear him was unbounded. His sparkling and 35 



WAKKEN HASTINGS 265 

highly finished declamation lasted two days; but the 
Hall was crowded to suffocation during the whole time. 
It was said that fifty guineas had been paid for a single 
ticket. Sheridan, when he concluded, contrived, with 
5 a knowledge of stage effect which his father might have 
envied, to sink back, as if exhausted, into the arms of 
Burke, who hugged him with the energy of generous 
admiration. 

June was now far advanced. The session could not 

10 last much longer ; and the progress which had been made 
in the impeachment was not very satisfactory. There 
were twenty charges. On two only of these had even 
the case for the prosecution been heard; and it was 
now a year since Hastings had been admitted to bail. 

15 The interest taken by the public in the trial was 
great when the Court began to sit, and rose to the height 
when Sheridan spoke on the charge relating to the 
Begums. From that time the excitement went down 
fast. The spectacle had lost the attraction of novelty. 

20 The great displays of rhetoric were over. What was^ 
behind was not of a nature to entice men of letters 
from their books in the morning, or to tempt ladies 
who had left the masquerade at two to be out of bed 
before eight. There remained examinations and cross- 

25 examinations. There remained statements of accounts. 
There remained the reading of papers, filled with words 
unintelligible to English ears, with lacs and crores, 
zemindars and aumils, sunnuds and perwannahs,. 
jaghires and nuzzurs. There remained bickerings, not 

30 always carried on with the best taste or the best temper,, 
between the managers of the impeachment and the 
counsel for the defence, particularly between Mr. Burke 
and Mr. Law. There remained the endless marches and 
counter-marches of the Peers between their House and 

35 the Hall : for as often as a point of law was to be- 



2eQ MACAULAY^S ESSAYS 

discussed, their Lordships retired to discuss it apart; 
and the consequence was, as a Peer wittily said, that the 
judges walked and the trial stood still. 

It is to be added that, in the spring of 1788, when 
the trial commenced, no important question, either of 5 
domestic or foreign policy, occupied the public mind. 
The proceeding in Westminster Hall, therefore, nat- 
urally attracted most of the attention of Parliament and 
of the country. It was the one great event of that sea- 
son. But in the following year the King's illness, the lo 
debates on the Eegency, the expectation of a change of 
ministry, completely diverted public attention from 
Indian affairs; and within a fortnight after George the 
Third had returned thanks in St. Paul's for his recovery, 
the States-General of France met at Versailles. In the 15 
midst of the agitation produced by these events, the 
impeachment was for a time almost forgotten. 

The trial in the Hall went on languidly. In the 
session of IT 88, when the proceedings had the interest 
of novelty, and when the Peers had little other business 20 
before them, only thirty-five days were given to the 
impeachment. In 1789, the Eegency Bill occupied the 
Upper House till the session was far advanced. When 
the King recovered the circuits were beginning. The 
judges left tov:n ; the Lords waited for the return of 25 
the oracles of jurisprudence; and the consequence was 
that during the whole year only seventeen days were 
given to the case of Hastings. It was clear that the 
matter would be protracted to a length unprecedented 
in the annals of criminal law. 30 

In truth, it is iinpossible to deny that impeachment, 
though it is a fine ceremony, and though it may have 
been useful in the seventeenth century, is not a proceed- 
ing from which much good can now be expected. What- « 
ever confidence may be placed in the decision of the Peers 35 ; 



WAEKEN HASTINGS 267 

on an appeal arising out of ordinary litigation, it is cer- 
tain that no man has the least confidence in their impar- 
tiality, when a great public functionary, charged with 
a great state crime, is brought to their bar. They are all 
5 politicians. There is hardly one among them whose vote 
on an impeachment may not be confidently predicted 
before a witness has been examined; and, even if it 
were possible to rely on their justice, they would still 
be quite unfit to try such a cause as that of Hastings. 

10 They sit only during half the year. They have to 
transact much legislative and much judicial business. 
The law-lords, whose advice is required to guide the 
unlearned majority, are employed daily in administering 
justice elsewhere. It is impossible, therefore, that 

15 during a busy session, the Upper House should give 
more than a few days to an impeachment. To expect 
that their Lordships would give up partridge-shooting, 
in order to bring the greatest delinquent to speedy 
justice, or to relieve accused innocence by speedy ac- 

20 quittal, would be unreasonable indeed. A well-consti- 
tuted tribunal, sitting regularly six days in the week, 
and nine hours in the da}^, would have brought the trial 
of Hastings to a close in less than three months. The 
Lords had not finished their work in seven years. 

25 The result ceased to be matter of doubt, from the 
time when the Lords resolved that they would be 
guided by the rules of evidence which are received in 
the inferior courts of the realm. Those rules, it is 
well known, exclude much information which would be 

30 quite sufficient to determine the conduct of any rea- 
sonable man, in the most important transactions of 
private life. These rules, at every assizes, save scores 
of culprits whom judges, jury, and spectators, firmly 
believe to be guilty. But when those rules were rigidly 

35 applied to offences committed many 3^ears before, at the 



268 MACAULAY'S ESSAYS 

distance of many thousands of miles, conviction was, 
of course, out of the question. We do not blame the 
accused and his counsel for availing themselves of every 
legal advantage in order to obtain an acquittal. But 
it is clear that an acquittal so obtained cannot be 5 
pleaded in bar of the judgment of history. 

Several attempts were made by the friends of Hastings 
to put a stop to the trial. In 1789 they proposed a vote 
of censure upon Burke, for some violent language which 
he had used respecting the death of ^N'uncomar and the lo 
connection between Hastings and Impey. Burke was 
then unpopular in the last degree both with the House 
and with the country. The asperity and indecency of 
some expressions which he had used during the debates 
on the Kegency had annoyed even his warmest friends, is 
The vote of censure was carried; and those who had 
moved it hoped that the managers would resign in 
disgust. Burke was deeply hurt. But his zeal for what 
he considered as the cause of justice and mercy tri- 
umphed over his personal feelings. He received the 20 
censure of the House with dignity and meekness, and 
declared that no personal mortfication or humiliation 
should induce him to flinch from the sacred duty which 
he had undertaken. 

In the following year the Parliament was dissolved ; 25 
and the friends of Hastings entertained a hope that 
the new House of Commons might not be disposed to 
go on with the impeachment. They began by main- 
taining that the whole proceeding was terminated by 
the dissolution. Defeated on this point, they made a 30 
direct motion that the impeachment should be dropped ; . 
but they were defeated by the combined forces of the 
Government and the Opposition. It was, however, re- 
solved that, for the sake of expedition, many of the 
articles should be withdrawn. In truth, had not some 35 



WAEEEN HASTINGS 369 

STich measare been adopted, the trial would have lasted 
till the defendant was in his grave. 

At length, in the spring of 1795, the decision was 
pronounced, near eight years after Hastings had been 
5 brought by the Serjeant-at-Arms of the Commons to 
the bar of the Lords. On the last day of this great 
procedure the public curiosity, long suspended, seemed 
to be revived. Anxiety about the judgment there could 
be done; for it had been fully ascertained that there 

10 was a great majority for the defendant. Nevertheless 
many wished to see the pageant, and the Hall was as 
much crowded as on the first day. But those who, 
having been present on the first day, now bore a part 
in the proceedings of the last, were few; and most of 

15 those few were altered men. 

As Hastings himself said, the arraignment had taken 
place before one generation, and the judgment was 
pronounced by another. The spectator could not look 
at the woolsack, or at the red benches of the Peers, or 

20 at the green benches of the Commons, without seeing 
something that reminded him of the instability of all 
human things, of the instability of power and fame and 
life, of the more lamentable instability of friendship. 
The great seal was borne before Lord Loughborough, 

25 who, when the trial commenced, was a fierce opponent 
of Mr. Pitt's Government, and who was now a member 
of that Government, while Thurlow, who presided in 
the court when it first sat, estranged from all his old 
allies, sat scowling among the junior barons. Of about 

30 a hundred and sixty nobler who walked in the procession 
on the first day, sixty had been laid in their family 
vaults. Still more affecting must have been the sight 
of the managers' box. What had become of that fair 
fellowship, so closely bound together by public and 

35 private ties, so resplendent with every talent and accom- 



270 MACAULAY'S ESSAYS 

plishment? It had been scattered by calamities more 
bitter than the bitterness of death. The great chiefs 
were still living, and still in the full vigour of their 
genius. But their friendship was at an end. It had 
been violently and publicly dissolved, with tears and 5 
stormy reproaches. If those men, once so dear to each 
other, were now compelled to meet for the purpose of 
managing the impeachment, they met as strangers 
whom public business had brought together, and be- 
haved to each other with cold and distant civility, lo 
Burke had in his vortex whirled away Windham. Fox 
had been followed by Sheridan and Grey. 

Only twenty-nine Peers voted. Of these only six 
found Hastings guilty on the charges relating to Cheyte 
Sing and to the Begums. On other charges, the majority 15 
in his favour was still greater. On some he was unan- 
imously absolved. He was then called to the bar, was 
informed from the woolsack that the Lords had acquitted 
him, and was solemnly discharged. He bowed 
respectfully and retired. 20 

We have said that the decision had been fully 
expected. It was also generally approved. At the com- 
mencement of the trial there had been a strong and 
indeed unreasonable feeling against Hastings. At the 25 
close of the trial there was a feeling equally strong 
and equally unreasonable in his favour. One cause of 
the change was, no doubt, what is commonly called the 
fickleness of the multitude, but what seems to us to be 
merely the general law of human nature. Both in 
individuals and in masses violent excitement is always so 
followed by remission, and often by reaction. We are 
all inclined to depreciate whatever we have overpraised, 
and, on the other hand, to show undue indulgence 
where we have shown undue rigour. It was thus in the 
case of Hastings. The length of his trial, moreover, 53 



WAEKEN HASTINGS 271 

made him an object of compassion. It was thought, 
and not without reason, that, even if he was guilty, he 
was still an ill-used man, and that an impeachment of 
eight years was more than a sufficient -punishment. It 

5 was also felt that, though, in the ordinary course of 
criminal law, a defendant is not allowed to set off his 
good actions against his crime, a great political cause 
should be tried on different principles, and that a man 
who had governed an empire during thirteen years might 

10 have done some very reprehensible things, and yet 

. might be on the whole deserving of rewards and honours 
rather than of fine and imprisonment. The press, an 
instrument neglected by the prosecutors, was used by 
Hastings and his friends wdth great effect. Every ship, 

15 too, that arrived from Madras or Bengal, brought a 
cuddy full of his admirers. Every gentleman from 
India spoke of the late Governor-General as havmg 
deserved better, and having been treated worse, than any 
man living. The effect of this testimony unanimously 

20 given by all persons who knew the East, was naturally 
very great. Eetired members of the Indian services^ 
civil and military, were settled in all corners of the king- 
dom. Each of them was, of course, in his own little circle,, 
regarded as an oracle on an Indian question; and they 

25 were, with scarcely one exception, the zealous advocates 
of Hastings. It is to be added, that the numerous 
addresses to the late Governor-General, which his friends 
in Bengal obtained from the natives and transmitted 
to England, made a considerable impression. To these 

30 addresses we attach little or no importance. That 
Hastings was beloved by the people whom he governed 
is true; but the eulogies of pundits, zemindars, Moham- 
medan doctors, do not prove it to be true. For an 
English collector or judge would have found it easy 

35 to induce any native who could write to sign a panegyric 



272 MACAULAY'S ESSAYS 

on the most odious ruler that ever was in India. It 
was said that at Benares, the very place at which the 
acts set forth in the first article of impeachment had 
been committed, the natives had erected a temple to 
Hastings; and this story excited a strong sensation in 5 
England. Burke's observations on the apotheosis were 
admirable. He saw no reason for astonishment, he said, 
in the incident which had been represented as so strik- 
ing. He knew something of the mythology of the 
Brahmins. He knew that as they worshipped some gods 10 
from love, so they worshipped others from fear. He 
knew that they erected shrines, not only to the benignant 
deities of light and plenty, but also to the fiends who 
preside over smallpox and murder; nor did he at all 
dispute the claim of Mr. Hastings to be admitted into 15 
such a Pantheon. This reply has always struck us as 
one of the finest that ever was made in Parliament. 
It is a grave and forcible argument, decorated by the 
most brilliant wit and fancy. 

Hastings was, however, safe. But in everything 2C 
except character, he would have been far better off if, 
when first impeached, he had at once pleaded guilty, and 
paid a fine of fifty thousand pounds. He was a ruined 
man. The legal expenses of his defence had been 
^enormous. The expenses which did not appear in his 25 
attorney's bill were perhaps larger still. Great sums 
had been paid to Major Scott. Great sums had 
been laid out in bribing newspapers, rewarding pam- 
phleteers, and circulating tracts. Burke, so early as 
1790, declared in the House of Commons that twenty 30 
thousand pounds had been employed in corrupting the 
press. It is certain that no controversial weapon, from 
the gravest reasoning to the coarsest ribaldry, was left 
unemployed. Logan defended the accused Governor 
with great ability in prose. For the lovers of verse, the 35 



WABEEN HASTINGS 273 

speeches of the managers were burlesqued in Simp- 
kin^s letters. It is, we are afraid, indisputable that 
Hastings stooped so low as to court the aid of that 
malignant and filthy baboon, John Williams, who called 

5 himself Anthony Pasquin. It was necessary to subsidise 
such allies largely. The private hoards of Mrs. Hastings 
had disappeared. It is said that the banker to whom 
the}^ had been intrusted had failed. Still if Hastings 
had practised strict economy, he would, after all his 

10 losses, haye had a moderate competence ; but in the 
management of his private affairs he was imprudent. 
The dearest wish of his heart had always been to regain 
Daylesford. At length, in the very year in which his 
trial commenced, the wish was accomplished; and the 

15 domain, alienated more than seventy years before, re- 
turned to the descendant of its old lords. But the 
manor-house was a ruin ; and the grounds round it had, 
during many years, been utterly neglected. Hastings 
proceeded to build, to jjlant, to form a sheet of water, 

20 to excavate a grotto ; and, before he was dismissed from 
the bar of the House of Lords, he had expended more 
than forty thousand pounds in adorning his seat. 

The general feeling both of the Directors and of the 
proprietors of the East India Company was that he had 

25 great claims on them, that his services to them had 
been eminent, and that his misfortunes had been the 
effect of his zeal for their interest. His friends in 
Leadenhall Street proposed to reimburse him the costs 
of his trial, and to settle on him an annuity of five 

30 thousand pounds a year. But the consent of the Board 
of Control was necessary ; and at the head of the Board 
of Control was Mr. Dundas, who had himself been a 
party to the impeachment, who had, on that account, 
been reviled with great bitterness by the adherents of 

35 Hastings, and who, therefore, was not in a very com- 



274 MACAULAY'S ESSAYS 

plying mood. He refused to consent to what the 
Directors suggested. The Directors remonstrated. A 
long controversy followed. Hastings, in the meantime, 
was reduced to such distress that he could hardly pay 
his weekly bills. At length a compromise was made. 5 
An annuity for life of four thousand pounds was 
settled on Hastings; and in order to enable him to 
meet pressing demands, he was to receive ten years' 
annuity in advance. The Company was also permitted 
to lend him fifty thousand pounds, to be repaid by instal- 10 
ments without interest. This relief, though given in 
the most absurd manner, was sufficient to enable the 
retired Governor to live in comfort, and even in luxury, 
if he had been a skilful manager. But he was careless 
and profuse, and vras more than once under the neces- 15 
sity of applying to the Company for assistance, which 
was liberally given. 

He had security and affluence, but not the power and 
dignity which, when he landed from India, he had 
reason to expect. He had then looked forward to a 20 
coronet, a red riband, a seat at the Council Board, an 
office at Whitehall. He was then only fifty-two, and 
might hope for many years of bodily and mental 
vigour. The case vras widely different when he left 
the bar of the Lords. He was now too old a man to 25 
turn his mind to a new class of studies and duties. 
He had no chance of receiving any mark of royal 
favour while Mr. Pitt remained in power; and, when 
Mr. Pitt retired, Hastings was approaching his seven- 
tieth year. 30 

Once, and only once, after his acquittal, he interfered 
in politics; and that interference was not much to his 
honour. In 1804 he exerted himself strenuously to 
prevent Mr. Addington, against whom Fox and Pitt 
had combined, from resigning the Treasury. It is 35 



WAKREN HASTINGS 275 

difficult to believe that a man, so able and energetic 
as Hastings, can have thought that, when Bonaparte 
was at Boulogne with a great army, the defence of our 
island could safel}^ be trusted to a ministiy which did 

5 not contain a single person whom flattery could 
describe as a great statesman. It is also certain that, 
on the important question which had raised Mr. 
Addington to power, and on which he differed from 
both Fox and Pitt, Hastings, as might have been 

10 expected, agreed with Fox and Pitt, and was decidedly 
opposed to Addington. Eeligious intolerance has never 
been the vice of the Indian service, and certainly was 
not the vice of Hastings. But Mr. Addington had 
treated him with marked favour. Fox had been a prin- 

15 cipal manager of the impeachment. To Pitt it was 
owing that there had been an impeachment; and 
Hastings, we fear, was on this occasion guided by 
personal considerations, rather than by a regard to the 
public interest. 

20 The last twenty-four years of his life were chiefly 
passed at Daylesford. He amused himself with em- 
bellishing his grounds, riding fine Arab horses, fatten- 
ing prize-cattle, and trying to rear Indian animals and 
vegetables in England. He sent for seeds of a very 

25 fine custard-apple, from the garden of what had once 
been his own villa, among the green hedgerows of 
Allipore. He tried also to naturalise in Worcestershire 
the delicious leechee, almost the only fruit of Bengal 
which deserves to be regretted even amidst the plenty 

30 of Covent Garden. The Mogul emperors, in the time 
of their greatness, had in vain attempted to introduce 
into Hindostan the goat of the table-land of Thibet, 
whose down supplies the looms of Cashmere with the 
materials of the finest shawls. Hastings tried, with no 

35 better fortune, to rear a breed at Daylesford ; nor does 



276 MACAULAY'S ESSAYS 

he seem to have succeeded better with the cattle of 
Bootan, whose tails are in high esteem as the best fans 
for brushing away the mosquitoes. 

Literature divided his attention with his conserva- 
tories and his menagerie. He had always loved books, 5 
and they were now necessary to him. Though not a 
poet^ in any high sense of the word, he wrote neat and 
polished lines with great facilit}^, and was fond of ex- 
ercising this talent. Indeed, if we must speak out, he 
seems to have been more of a Trissotin than was to be 10 
expected from the powers of his mind, and from the 
great part which he had played in life. We are 
assured in these Memoirs that the first thing which he 
did in the morning was to write a copy of verses. 
When the family and guests assembled, the poem made 15 
its appearance as regularly as the eggs and rolls; and 
Mr. Gleig requires us to believe that, if from any 
accident Hastings came to the breakfast-table without 
one of liis cliarming performances in his hand, the 
omission was felt by all as a grievous disappointment. 20 
Tastes differ widely. For ourselves, we must say that, 
however good the breakfasts at Da^desford may have 
been, — and we are assured that the tea was of the most 
aromatic flavour, and that neither tongue nor venison- 
pasty was wanting, — ^we should have thought the 25 
reckoning high if we had been forced to earn our repast 
by listening every day to a new madrigal or sonnet 
composed by our host. We are glad, however, that Mr. 
Gleig has preserved this little feature of character, 
though we think it by no means a beauty. It is good 30 
to be often reminded of the inconsistency of human 
nature, and to learn to look without wonder or disgust 
on the weaknesses which are found in the strongest 
minds. Dionysius in old times, Frederic in the last 
century, with capacity and vigour equal to the conduct 35 



WARKEN HASTINGS 277 

of the greatest affairs, united all the little vanities and 
affectations of provincial bine-stockings. These great 
examples may console the admirers of Hastings for the 
affliction of seeing him reduced to the level of the 

5 Hayleys and Sewards. 

When Hastings had passed many years in retirement, 
and had long outlived the common age of men, he again 
became for a short time an object of general attention. 
In 1813 the charter of the East India Company was 

10 renewed; and much discussion about Indian affairs 
took place in Parliament. It was determined to ex- 
amine witnesses at the bar of the Commons; and 
Hastings was ordered to attend. He had appeared at 
that bar once before. It was when he read his answer 

15 to the charges which Burke had laid on the table. 
Since that time twentyrseven years had elapsed; public 
feeling had undergone a complete change ; the nation 
had now^ forgotten his faults, and remembered only his 
services. The reappearance, too, of a man who had 

20 been among the most distinguished of a generation that 
had passed away, who now belonged to histor}-, and 
who seemed to have risen from the dead, could not but 
produce a solemn and pathetic effect. The Commons 
received him with acclamations, ordered a chair to be set 

25 for him, and, when he retired, rose and uncovered. 
There were, indeed, a few who did not sympathise with 
the general feeling. One or two of the managers of 
the impeachment were present. They sate in the same 
seats which they had occupied when they had been 

30 thanked for the services which they had rendered in 
Westminster HaU: for, by. the courtesy of the House,. 
a member who has been thanked in his place is con- 
sidered as having a right always to occupy that place. . 
These gentlemen were, not disposed to . admit 'that they 

35 had employed . several of the best years of their lives 



278 MACAULAT'S ESSAYS 

in persecuting an innocent man. They accordingly 
kept their seats^ and pulled their hats over their brows; 
but the exceptions only made the prevailing enthusiasm 
more remarkable. The Lords received the old man 
with similar tokens of respect. The University of 5 
Oxford conferred on him the degree of Doctor of 
Laws; and, in the Sheldonian Theatre, the under- 
graduates welcomed him with tumultuous cheering. 

These marks of public esteem were soon followed by 
marks of royal favour. Hastings was sworn of the lo 
Privy Council, and was admitted to a long private 
audience of the Prince Eegent, who treated him very 
graciously. When the Emperior of Russia and the 
King of Prussia visited England, Hastings appeared in 
their train both at Oxford and in the Guildhall of Lon- 15 
don, and, though surrounded by a crowd of princes and 
great warriors, was everywliere received with marks of 
respect and admiration. He was presented by the 
Prince Regent both to Alexander and to Frederic Will- 
iam ; and his Royal Highness went so far as to declare 20 
in public that honours far higher than a seat in the 
Privy Council were due, and would soon be paid, to the 
man who saved the British dominions in Asia. 
Hastings now confidently expected a peerage; but, 
from some unexplained cause, he was again 25 
disappointed. 

He lived about four years longer, in the enjoyment 
of good spirits, of faculties not impaired to any painful 
or degrading extent, and of health such as is rarely 
enjoyed by those who attain such an age. At length, 30 
on the twenty-second of August, 1818, in the eighty- 
sixth year of his age, he met death with the same 
tranquil and decorous fortitude which he had opposed 
to all the trials of his various and eventfullife. 

With all his faults. — and they were neither few nor 35 



SI 



WAKEEN HASTINGS 279 

mall, — only one cemeter}^ was worthy to contain his 
remains. In that temple of silence and reconciliation 
where the enmities of twenty generations lie buried, in 
the Great Abbey, which has during may ages afforded 

•"i a quiet resting-place to those whose minds and bodies 
have been shattered by the contentions of the Great 
Hall, the dust of the illustrious accused should have 
mingled with the dust of the illustrious accusers. This 
was not to be. Yet the place of interment was not ill 

10 chosen. Behind the chancel of the parish church of 
Daylesford, in earth which already held the bones of 
many chiefs of the house of Hastings, was laid the 
coffin of the greatest man who has ever borne that 
ancient and widely extended name. On that very spot 

15 probably, four-score years before, the little Warren, 
meanly clad and scantily fed, had played with the 
children of ploughmen. Even then his young mind 
had revolved plans which might be called romantic. 
Yet, however romantic, it is not likely that they had 

20 been so strange as the truth. Not only had the poor 
orphan retrieved the fallen fortunes of his line — not 
only had he repurchased the old lands, and rebuilt the 
old dwelling — he had preserved and extended an em- 
pire. He had founded a polity. He had administered 

25 government and war with more than the capacity of 
Eichelieu. He had patronised learning with the 
judicious liberality of Cosmo. He had been attacked 
by the most formidable combination of enemies that 
ever sought the destruction of a single victim; and 

30 over that combination, after a struggle of ten years, he 
had triumphed. He had at length gone down to his 
grave in the fulness of age, in peace, after so many 
troubles, in honour, after so much obloquy. 

Those who look on his character with'out favour or 

35 malevolence will pronounce that, in the two great ek^ 



280 MACAULAY 'S ESSAYS 

ments of all social virtue, in respect for the rights of 
others, and in sympathy for the sufferings of others, 
he was deficient. His principles were somewhat lax. 
His heart was somewhat hard. But though we cannot 
with truth describe him either as a righteous or as a 5 
merciful ruler, we cannot regard without admiration 
the amplitude and fertility of his intellect, his rare 
talents for command, for administration, and for con- 
troversy, his dauntless courage, his honourable poverty, 
his fervent zeal for the interests of the State, his noble 10 
equanimity, tried by both extremes of fortune, and 
never disturbed bv either. 



NOTES 



Although these notes are sometimes critical as well as explanatory, they 
include few questions in regard to structure and style. It is considered that 
the Introduction affords a sufficient starting-point for studies in that direction. 
Explanations of names and unusual words may be sought in the Glossary. 
It should be noted that Macaulay employs the older spelling of Indian names. 
The spelling used by the Indian Government for the Imperial Gazetteer of 
India is the one to-day most frequently followed, so that Macaulay's forms, 
Hindoo, Nabob, Carnatic, Meer Jaffier, Meer Cossim, Omichund, Nuncomar, 
etc., now often appear as Hindu, Nawab, Karnatik, Mir Jafar, Mir Kasim, 
Aminchand, Nandkumar, etc. 

LORD CLIVE 

The essays on Clive and Warren Hastings appeared in the Edinburgh 
Review in 1840 and 1841 respectively, and are constructed in Macaulay's 
usual manner, touching very lightly the books they are supposed to review 
and then striking boldly out into the large subject opened up by the titles. 
They are both admirable examples of that peculiar type of historical essay 
wliich Macaulay cultivated — little biographies which weave about the central 
character so much of the public life, the wars and statecraft, of the time in 
which that character lived, that they become essentially historical monographs ; 
indeed the ten or a dozen essays written by him upon characters prominent 
in English public affairs would, strung together, constitute a pretty complete 
history of England from the time of Burleigh to the time of Hastings. Among 
these, the two essaj's here printed stand, with the essays on Pitt, in the very 
first rank, and they are perhaps the most popular of all. This is due in part 
to the semi-romantic nature of the material and the author's personal famil- 
iarity -with it (he had liimself held an official position in India), in part to 
the gorgeous yet well matured style which he brought to the treatment, and 
in some measure also, no doubt, to the fact that the characters dealt with 
were such as Macaulay was temperamentally best fitted to gauge. "The 
great ci\'ic and military qualities," says J. Cotter Morison, "resolute courage, 
promptitude, self-command, and firmness of purpose, he could thoroughly 
understand and warmly admire. His style is always animated by a warmer 
glow and a deeper note when he celebrates high deeds of valor or fortitude 
either in the council or the field. There was an heroic fiber in him, which' 
the peaceful times in which he lived, and the peaceful occupations in which 
he passed his days, never adequately revealed." 

Page 39: Line 5. Every schoolboy knows. These three words constitute 
one of the very few phrases of M9,caulay's that have passed into current 

281 



282 NOTES 

quotation. They are commonly quoted in a humorous way, with some 
reflection on Macaulay's airy manner. 

39: 11. A Hindoo or a Mussulman. The major portion of the population 
of India are Hindus in religion ; they are divided into various castes, Brahman, 
Rajput, etc. About one-fourth are Mussulmans, or Mohammedans. A very 
small percentage are Buddhists. 

39: 17. Horse-soldier. The horse, which later proved so useful to the 
natives of America, from the North American tfibes to the Patagonians, was 
introduced by the Spaniards. 

41: 10. Love of biographers. One of Macaulay's frequent references 
to what he calls the hies Boswelliana, or biographer's disease, namely, exces- 
sive admiration for his subject. Here the phrasing is given a Scriptural 
turn. See 2 Sam. i. 23. 

41: 30. Avocations. -A word often misused, but here used with entire 
accuracy. 

43: 34. Writership. "The duties devolving on a writer were the 
duties of a clerk; to keep accounts; to take stock; to make advances; 
to ship cargoes; to see that no infringement of the company's monopoly 
should occur." — Colonel G. B. Malleson: Lord Clirc. 

43: 33. Prophet's gourd. Jonah iv. 

• 44: 12. Three months. The use of steam and the opening of the Suez 
Canal (1869) have reduced the voyage to three weeks. 

48: 10. Duel. See Browning's poem, Clive. 

51: 27. Mountain of Light. This famous diamond is better known by 
its untranslated name, Koh-i-nur. As a last vicissitude it passed into the 
possession of the British Crown, having been given to Queen Victoria by the 
East India Companj^ in 1850. 

53: 9. Mahrattas. Note how rhetorical emphasis is secured for this 
word. The passage that follows is remarkable for concreteness and pictorial 
vividness — an excellent example of Macaulay's "graphic" style. 

53: 30. Factors trembled for their magazines. In American English 
this would be something like "commission merchants trembled for their 
warehouses and stores." The great commercial establishments or trading- 
posts of the British in India were called "factories," and those in charge 
were the "factors." 

56: 17. Eloquence of Burke. See Burke's speech on the Nabob of 
Areot's debts, Feb. 28, 1785. 

57: 29. He loved to display. The Oriental loves display, and those 
who can make the greatest display are held by him in the highest reverence. 
Dupleix's action, therefore, as has more than once been pointed out, may 
have been rather the result of policy than of the vainglory which Macaulay i 
is disposed to attribute to him. 



NOTES 283 

59: 21. Throxigh thunder, lightning, and rain. No doubt this is an inten- 
tional echo of a very familiar Shakespearian passage. Macaulay's biblical 
phrases — such as "which is, being interpreted," and the like — are also to 
be noted. 

61: 5. The Old Guard. "The guard dies, but never surrenders," is a 
famous but fictitious saying, ascribed to Cambronne, commander of the 
Imperial Guard at Waterloo. 

70: 27. Reform Act. Macaulay alludes to this with some pride, as he 
had himself played a conspicuous part in carrying it through. It was 
essentially an act to equalize representation, readjusting the boroughs in 
conformity with changes in population and importance. 

77: 7. Story which Ugolino told. The comparison is well chosen, as 
Uterature scarcely contains a more terrible story than this told by Dante 
in the thirtj^-third canto of the Inferno. Count Ugolino of Pisa, with his 
two sons and two nephews, had been starved to death in a tower by Arch- 
bishop Ruggieri. Dante represents him as taking vengeance in Hell by 
constantly gnawing the Archbishop's skull, and it is- during a moment's 
intermission of that horrible feast that he tells his tale: 

"They were awake now, and the hour drew nigh 
At which our food used to be brought to us. 
And through his dream was each one apprehensive; 

And I heard locking up the under door 

Of the horrible tower; whereat without a word 
I gazed into the faces of my sons. 

I wept not, I within so turned to stone; 

They wept; and darling little Anselm mine 
Said: 'Thou dost gaze so, father, what doth ail thee?' " 
— Longfellow's translation. 

Macaulay's description of the Black Hole horror is highly praised by 
Mr. Courthope Bowen, the historian, and it is an admirable example of 
literary art, though it falls far short of Dante in the qualities of human 
pity and tenderness, as also in the power of the things left unsaid. 

85: 18. His advice was taken. Note the effect of rapidity from the 
shortening of both sentences and paragraphs. 

86: 34. Clive declared his concurrence. In fact Clive spoke first, and 
spoke against fighting. Several reasons have been given for his later 
change of mind, one attributing it to a dream, another to a letter from 
Meer Jaffier. 

93: 7. Clive was altogether in the lorong. The following ia the conclusion ' 
of Colonel G. B. Malleson's book on Lord Chve in the Rulers of India 
Series, and may assist in "directing the judgment of readers:" 

"But, says the moralist, he committed faults, and at once the false 
treaty made with Aminchand [Omichund] is thrown into the face of the 
historian. Yes, he did do it; and not only that, he stated in his evidence 



284 NOTES 

before the House of Commons that if he were again under the same cir- 
cumstances he would do it again. None of his detractors had had the oppor- 
tunity of judging of the terrible issues which the threatened treachery of 
Aminchand had opened to his vision. Upon the decision of Clive rested 
the lives of thousands. To save those lives there appeared to him but 
one sure method available, and that was to deceive the deceiver. I think 
his decision was a wrong one, but it should always be remembered tliat 
as Clive stated before the Committee, he had no interested motive in doing 
what he did do; he did it with the design of disappointing a rapacious man 
and of preventing the consequences of his treachery. He was in a posi- 
tion of terrible responsibility, and he acted to save others. Let the stern 
moralist stand in the same position as that in which Clive stood, and it 
is just possible he might think as Clive thought.' At all events, this one 
fault, for fault it was, cannot or ought not to be set up as a counterweight 
against services which have given this island the highest position amongst 
all the nations of the earth. The House of Commons, after a long debate, 
condoned it. Might not Posterity, the Posterity which has profited by 
that very fault, be content to follow the lead of the House of Commons? 
With all his faults, Clive was 'one of the men who did the most for the great- 
ness of England.' That fact is before us every da3^ His one fault hastened 
his death, from the handle it gave to the envious and revengeful, and took 
from him the chance of gaining fresh laurels in America. May not the 
ever-living fact of his services induce us to overlook, to blot out from the 
memory, that one mistake, which he so bitterly expiated in his lifetime?" 

92: 9. That ho7iesty is the best policy. Macaulay escapes here into 
such phrases as "generally correct," and fails to be either positive or clear. 
Honesty may or may not be the best policy on the plane of policy, but in 
itself it does not belong to that plane, and the absolute "rightness" of it 
is not to be questioned. 

102: 21, Sat down before. This is a ^ery literal translation of the word 
besiege. 

105: 9. Demagogue Wilkes. John Wilkes was elected a member of 
Parliament for Middlesex three times before he was allowed to take his 
seat, the charge against him being that of pubUshing immoral and seditious 
works. For the particulars of Grenville's "impolitic persecution" of him, 
see Macaulay 's essay on the Earl of Chatham. 

109: 6. A massacre. The massacre of Patna, referred to in para- 
graph 1.- Some of the English had fallen into Meer Cossim's hands as 
prisoners. Then, "on the 5th of October, 1763, nearly two hundred men, 
women, and children, were shot down in Sumru's presence by two com- 
panies of his sepoys." "Sumru" was the hired butcher, a treacherous 
English adventurer by the name of Walter Reinhardt. "Many of the 
prisoners fought for their lives \vith brickbats, bottles, anything that came 
to hand. The very executioners begged that weapons should be furnished 
to their victims, since the butchering of unarmed men was no fit work -for 
a,nned soldiers." — Captain L, J. Trotter; Warren Hastings. 



NOTES 286 

109: 28. The little finger. '*My little finger shall be thicker than my 
father's loins." I Kings xii. 10. 

110: 19. Mussulman historian. Seid Gholam Hosein Khan, whose 
history was translated by a Frenchman named Raymond. 

115: 29. Proconsuls, etc. Note that one effect of this allusion, perhaps 
unintended, is to draw a comparison between the British Empire and 
ancient Rome. 

119: 4. Persian characters. Hindustani is written in Persian characters. 
119: 12. Chilperics and Childerics. This comparison with the degenerate 
Frankish kings of the seventh and eighth centuries is a favorite one with 
Macaulay. In his essay on the Earl of Chatham he writes: "In his (Gren- 
ville's) view the prime minister, possessed of the confidence of the House 
of Commons, ought to be Mayor of the Palace. The King was a mere 
Childeric or Chilperic, who might well think himself lucky in being per- 
mitted to enjoy such handsome apartments at Saint James's, and so fine 
a park at Windsor." See also the essay on Warren Hastings, p. 154, 
bottom. 

121: 8. His second retiirn from Bengal. The following, from a letter 
of Horace Walpole's, dated July 20, 1767, is an interesting bit of contem- 
porary gossip: "Lord Clive is arrived, has brought a million for him- 
self, two diamond drops worth twelve thousand pounds for the queen, a 
scimitar, dagger, and other matters, covered with brilliants, for the King, 
and worth twenty-four thousand more. These baubles are presents from 
the deposed and imprisoned Mogul, whose poverty can still afford to give 
such bribes. Lord Clive refused some overplus, and gave it to some widows 
of officers: it amounted to ninety thousand pounds. He has reduced the 
appointments of the Governor of Bengal to thirty-two thousand pounds 
a year; and what is better, has left such a chain of forts and distribution 
of troops as will entirely secure possession of the country — till we lose it." 
131: 34. It was natural that. This repetition of introductory words 
is among the mannerisms of Macaulay 's style. See Introduction, 15. 
122: 29. Fresh eggs. See Introduction, 18. 

134: 11. Coivper, in that lofty expostulation. In the poem beginning 
"Why weeps the Muse for England?" 

"Hast thou, though suckled at fair freedom's breast, 
Exported slavery to the conquered East? 

Pulled down the tyrants India served with dread, • 

And raised thyself, a greater, in their stead? 
Gone thither armed and hungry, returned full. 
Fed from the richest veins of the Mogul, 
A despot big with power obtained by wealth. 
And that obtained by rapine and by stealth? 
With Asiatic %aces stored thv mind. 
But left their virtues and thine own behind; 
And, ha\ing trucked thy soul, brought home the fee, 
To tempt the poor to sell himself to thee?" (Lines 364-375). 



286 NOTES 

137: 15. All men of common humanity. The satire here upon the 
preceding sentence should not be overlooked. 

139: 4. The Middlesex election. This is another allusion to Wilkes 
and the long struggle to keep him out of the House of Commons. See note 
on 105: 9. 

139: 33. Spurs chopped off. Spurs were the badge of knighthood. 

133: 28. Pass such a scrutimj. Robert Bruce murdered his rival. 
Of Maurice, Prince of Orange, son of Wilham the Silent, Macaulay says 
in his History that he raised himself almost to kingly power "by some 
treacherous and cruel actions." The character of Wilham the Silent is 
not so easily assailed. William III of England is charged with at least a 
breach of duty in faihng to punisli the author of the massacre of Glencoe 
(Macaulay's History of England, Chap. 21). James Stuart, Earl of Murray, 
persisted in cruel charges against his half-sister, Mary Queen of Scots. 
The Florentine Cosmo de' Medici, Henry of Navarre, and Peter the Great, 
all bore private characters that were far from stainless. 

133: 5. Henry the Seventh's Chapel. This is the most magnificent 
portion of Westminster Abbey and a royal burial-place. The stalls apper- 
tain to the Knights of the Bath, and their banners are suspended above. 

133: 7. Kissed hands. Kissing the sovereign's hands is a part of the 
ceremony of entering upon certain high offices. 

134: 14. Burgoyne's syllogism. A syllogism, in formal logic, consists 
of a major premise, or general truth; a minor premise, or particular instance; 
and a conclusion relating the two. A simple example would be: "All wood 
is inflammable; mahogany is wood; therefore, mahogany is inflammable." 
It is easy to construct the syllogism in Clive's case. To "put the previous 
question" is, in parliamentary practice, to move that the original question 
"be now put," a procedure which has the effect of reopening debate and 
often preventing a vote. 

135: 22. We have no doubt that Voltaire. Macaulay digresses here, 
with shght excuse, to pronounce judgment upon the great French sceptic 
and philosopher of Ferney, and lays himself likewise open to the charge of 
being one who "sneers." 

137: 31. Closes with the fall of Ghizni. Ghizni, or Ghuzni, in Afghan- 
istan, was captured in 1839, only six months before this essay was written. 
By the word "closes" Macaulay probably meant only that it was the last 
triumph up to date. 

138: 1. At a still earlier age. Alexander the Great won the battle of 
Granicus, the first of his three great victories over the Persians, at the age 
of twenty-two; Prince de Conde defeated the Spaniards at Rocroi at the 
same age; Charles XII. of Sweden defeated the Russians at Narva at eighteen. 

138: 21. Tarpeian Jove. Roman triumphal processions ended with 
a sacrifice at the Temple of Jupiter on the Tarpeian, or Capitoline, Hill. 



NOTES , 287 

139: 25. The statue of Lord William Bentinck. This statue, erected 
in Calcutta, bears an inscription from the pen of Macaulay. Macaulay has 
made bold use, in these concluding paragraphs, of the great names and deeds 
of history, and he works up to a climax which pays a fine tribute to a man 
whose life and death were fresh in the memory of his readers and who had 
been in India one of his own warmest personal friends. 



WARREN HASTINGS 

The reader of Macaulay's essay on Hastings needs a word of caution.' 
History may not be quite the tissue of lies that Froude and others have 
declared it to be, but the best of histories are liable to prejudice, marred by 
unintentional and often unavoidable error, and constantly subject to revision 
in the light of fresh discoveries and changing standards. The judgments in 
the present essay must by no means be considered as final, and all who are 
interested in the facts in the case should read further, as, for example, in 
Hastings and the Rohilla War hj Sir John Strachey, in the Story of Nuncomar 
and the Impeachment of Sir Elijah Impey by Sir Jam^es Fitzjames Stephen 
(1885), in Sir Alfred Lyall's Warren Hastings, and in A Vindication of Warren 
Hastings by G, W. Hastings (1909). The notes that follow record some 
corrections of fact and differences of opinion. 

The essay is here printed in the revised form in which Macaulay left it. 
In the original form there were two introductory paragraphs and other 
passages of severe censure of the Reverend Mr. Gleig and his "three big bad 
volumes." 

Page 140: Line 10. Stood up to receive him. See fifth paragraph from 
the end. 

141: 17. Danish sea-king. Hasting. See Green's Short History of the 
English People, p. 53. 

141: 21. Splendor of the line. " One conspicuous member of the family 
was that Lord Hastings, whose loyal services to the House of York were 
requited by Richard III. with a violent death. On his successor, Henry VII. 
bestowed the Earldom of Huntingdon, a title which ere long fell dormant 
until, in 1819, the right to bear it was confirmed to Francis Hastings, as hneal 
descendant of the second Earl, From another branch of the same stock had 
sprung the Earls of Pembroke, one of whom followed the banner of the Black 
Prince in the war between Peter the Cruel and his brother Henry of Castile." 
— Capt. L. J, Trotter: Warren. Hastings, in the "Rulers of India Series." 
For the fate of Lord Hastings as a "theme of poets," see Shakespeare's 
Richard III., Act III., Sc. ii., iii. 

142: 28. Born . . . 1732. It may be worth remembering that 
Warren Hastings was an exact contemporary of George Washington. 

144: 18. His (Cowper's) spirit had . . . been . . . tried. Observe 
how this prepares for the judgment upon Hastings, and intimates the nature 
of the story to follow. It is therefore no digression. 



288 NOTES 

144: 32. Safely venture to guess. "Macaulay*s notion that young 
Hastings 'hired Irapey with a ball or a tart' to fag for him, is egregiously 
absurd." — L. J. Trotter. Compare Introduction, 13, 

145: 19. Hexameters and pentameters. Writing Greek and Latin verses 
was a conspicuous part of the old English school curriculum. Observe how 
Macaulay here (and elsewhere) uses short, independent sentences where most 
writers would employ subordinate clauses: "Thinking the years, etc., and 
having it in his power, etc," See Introduction, 10. 

145: 23. Died of a liver complaint. This is a very slight variation upon 
what was said about Ciive, and well illustrates the mechanical way in which 
the author's mind works, making him so pre-eminently a journalist. See 
Introduction, 30. 

148: 16. The strength of civilization without its mercy. Compare this 
with Clive, 109:33-35, and see preceding note. 

149: 8. Rotten boroughs in Cornwall. See Clive, 70:27, and note. 

149: 11. Little is known. "As a matter of fact, the book which Macau- 
lay was professing to review describes at length the honorable part consis- 
tently taken by Hastings in opposition to the great majority of the council. 
Sometimes in conjunction only with Vansittart, sometimes absolutely alone, 
he protested unceasingly against the policy and practices of his colleagues." — 
J. S. Cotton, in the Encyc. Brit. In the light of this statement, the favorite 
phrase with which Macaulay begins the next paragraph, "The truth is," is 
seen to be used altogether too readily. See Introduction, 16. 

151: 13. The old philosopher wrote to him. Doctor Johnson's admiring 
biographer, James Boswell, was much impressed by this fact, for he writes: 

"I introduce him [Johnson] with peculiar propriety as the correspondent 
of Warren Hastings! a man whose regard reflects dignity even upon John- 
son; a man who, by those who are fortunate enough to know him in private 
life, is admired for his literature and taste, and beloved for the candor, modera- 
tion, and mildness of his character." 

The three letters which Johnson wrote were obtained from Hastings and' 
may be read in Boswell 's Life of Johnson, under the year 1781. In one of 
the letters, dated 1774, is the following sentence: 

"I shall hope, that he who once intended to increase the learning of his 
country by the introduction of the Persian language, will examine nicely the 
traditions and histories of the East; that he will survey the wonders of its 
ancient edifices, and trace the vestiges of its ruined cities ; and that, at his 
return, we shall know the arts and opinions of a race of men from whom very 
little has been hitherto derived." 

151: 33. Picking up . . . pagodas. See Glossary under 
This is of course only a variation of our slang, "to pick up dollars," 

154: 25. Assumed the style. I. e., assumed the name. 

154: 32. In the same relation. See CZt?;e, 118:22; 119:10. 



NOTES 289 

157: 14. What the Italian is to the Englishman. An interesting step- 
ladder climax. See Introduction, 13. 

157: 33. The old Greek song. The 24th Ode of Anacreon, thus para- 
phrased by Moore: 

To all that breathe the airs of heaven, 
Some boon of strength has Nature given. 
When the majestic bull was born, 
She fenced his brow with wreathed horn. 
She armed the courser's foot of air. 
And winged with speed the panting hare. 
She gave the lion fangs of terror. 
And, on the ocean's crystal mirror. 
Taught the unnumbered scaly throng 
To trace their liquid path along; 
While for the umbrage of the grove. 
She plumed the warbling world of love. 
To man she gave the flame refined. 
The spark of heaven — a thinking mind! 
And had she no surpassing treasure 
For thee, O woman, child of pleasure? 
She gave thee beauty — shaft of eyes, 
That every shaft of war outflies! 
She gave thee beauty — flush of fire 
That bids the flames of war retire! 
Woman! be fair, we must adore thee; 
Smile, and a world is weak before thee ! 

161: 14. On that memorable day. In the year 1760, immediately after 
Clive quitted Calcutta, the Mogul of Delhi attempted an invasion of Bengal. 
The invasion was repulsed by a band of English troops and sepoys under 
Majors Calliaud and Knox. 

165: 3. The allowance . . . was reduced at a stroke. This had been 
"expressly enjoined by the court of directors in a despatch dated six months 
before he took up office." — J. S. Cotton. 

166: 26. That memorable campaign. See note on Clive, 137:31. The 
cross of Saint George is the Greek cross, used on the British flag; Saint George 
is England's patron saint. 

168: 17. Hastings was in need of funds. Captain Trotter writes: 
"Fear of the Marathas [Mahrattas] was another and yet more powerful 
motive for a course of action which has since been often denounced, by none 
more eloquently than Macaulay himself, as a wanton aggression upon the 
innocent rulers of a well-governed and prosperous land. . . . Hastings 
himself avowedly based his Rohilla pohcy on high pohtical grounds. He had 
long considered the power of the Rohillas as dangerous to that of the Wazir 
n^izier], the only useful ally of the Company. A jealous dread of this 



290 NOTES 

powerful neighbor would drive the Rohillas at any moment to join the 
Marathas in warring on the Wazir. The consequent danger to Oudh and 
Bengal could be averted only by the conquest of Rohilkhand." Again: 
"Instead of thriving in almost Arcadian bhss, the people of Rohilkhand were 
a rack-rented peasantry, living amid scenes of lawless strife, doomed to suffer 
alike from the exactions of their own masters and from the merciless raids of 
ubiquitous Marathas." As to this last argument, it may be remarked that 
it is the old plea for civilized conquest of primitive peoples. 

171: 15. To take order. This is a nearly obsolete phrase, meaning " to 
take proper care." 

176: 11. The Middlesex election. See Clive, 129:4, and note. 

177: 6. Twenty-one guns. The royal salute. 

182: 20. Idiots mid biographers excepted. See note on Clive, 41:10. 
This is a severe reflection upon the Reverend Mr. Gleig. 

183: 29. True hill. An endorsement of an indictment by a grand jury. 

187: 26. This memorable execution is to be attributed to Hastings. 
This judgment does not by any means stand unchallenged Capt. L. J. 
Trotter discusses the matter as follows: 

"A detailed account of the execution, written at the time by Macrabie, 
the Sheriff of Calcutta, a brother-in-law and a faithful iollower of Phihp 
Francis, was afterward to furnish Burke and Elliot with a theme for much 
furious invective, and to become the groundwork for some splendid passages 
in Macaulay's well-known essay. Burke was never weary of proclaiming 
that Hastings had murdered Nanda-Kumar [Nuncomar] by the hands of 
Sir Elijah Impey. Macaulay, with far less excuse for his evil-speaking, brands 
Impey with the foul fame of Jeffreys, and declares that none but idiots and 
biographers can doubt that Hastings was 'the real mover in the business,' 
even while he doubts whether Nanda-Kumar's death can justly be reckoned 
among Hastings' crimes. A recent writer, Mr. Beveridge, tries in vain to 
show that the Governor-General did conspire with Impey to murder his 
ancient foe. 

"It is true that Hastings had been driven into a corner, and it is certain 
that some men in his position would not have scrupled to save themselves 
from utter ruin by foul means. But if past character counts for anything, 
Warren Hastings was not the man to screen himself from any show of com- 
plicity in one crime by the deliberate commission of another. Full weight 
at least is due to his solemn declaration, made on oath before the judges, that 
he had never, directly or indirectly, countenanced or forwarded the prosecu- 
tion, for forgery against Nanda-Kumar. Nobody in Calcutta, not even in 
Hastings* Council, seems to have directly impugned the justice of the verdict, 
or to have plainly hinted that the Governor-General took any part in the 
prosecution; for Francis' letter of August 7, to Admiral Hughes, deals only 
in cunning innuendoes which the reader may interpret as he will. 

"Biographers may sometimes be foolish; but so are critics who jump to 
rash conclusions from premises however specious. Because Nanda-Kumar's 



NOTES 291 

death may have removed a viper out of Hastings' path, post hoc need not 
therefore be translated propter hoc. There is no vaUd evidence to support this 
view. Sir James Stephen, who is neitlier an idiot nor a biographer, but a high, 
judicial authority on the law of evidence and the criminal law, has gone more 
deeply, carefully, and impartially, than any other writer, past or present, into 
all the documents bearing on the trial of Nanda-Kumar, and has recorded 
judgment alike in favor of Impey and the Governor-General. The Raja, he 
thinks, was fairly tried and justly condemned from the judges' point of view, 
while Impey in particular treated him on the whole with marked leniency. 
As for Hastings' share in the business. Sir J. Stephen finds that it amounted! 
to none at all. There is no evidence whatever to show that he had any hand 
in the prosecution, or that he did anything to ensure the prisoner's fate." 

188: 34. Tour to the Hebrides. Both Johnson and Boswell have left 
written records of this tour. Johnson's is called A Journey to the Western 
Islands of Scotland (1775). In regard to Jones's Persian Grammar, see 
151:13 and note, and 233:18. 

190: 2. So far eastward. The government buildings and the residences 
of the aristocracy are in the western part of London, while business is central- 
ized more in the eastern part. In the extreme east are the laboring classes, 
many of whom never visit the western portion, and vice versa. 

196: 2. Aurungabad and Bejapoor. Macaulay makes this paragraph 
ring with proper names apparently through mere delight in their resonant 
sound, as Milton sometimes does in Paradise Lost. 

304: 7. And the Chief Justice was rich, quiet, and infamous. 

"He never consented to draw the additional salary offered to him." — 
J. S. Cotton, in Encyc. Brit. 

"The Chief Justice, in all sincerity, accepted the olive-branch thus oppor- 
tunely held out by his old friend. This arrangement, which brought peace 
and order at a critical moment to Bengal, was denounced by Hastings' and 
fmpey's enemies as a fresh crime, and was afterward described by Macaulay 
as the giving and taking of a bribe. Bengal was saved, he says, and the 
Chief Justice became 'rich, quiet, and infamous.' But this sort of language 
wanders very far from the rulings of common justice and common sense. 
Bengal was saved, indeed, and the Chief Justice ultimately drew a fair salary 
in return for useful and arduous work in an office for which he was peculiarly 
fitted. But the infamy of the matter is the mere child of rhetorical extrava- 
gance Inspired by party traditions. There was no giving or taking of bribes. 
Hastings wisely pitched upon the best man he knew for the task of regulating 
the whole machinery of the Provincial Courts. . . . The right to further 
salary for a separate office had not been questioned in the case of Clavering. 
. . . There is no room for doubt that the new arrangement was a well-timed 
stroke of pohcy on Hastings' part. It was, indeed, as Sir James Stephen 
allows, 'the only practicable way out of the unhappy quarrel into which the 
Court and the Council had been drawn by rash and ignorant English legisla- 
tion.' " — L. J. Trotter, 



292 NOTES 

314: 5. Sometimes the Nabob of Bengal is a shadow. Whose statement 
or view is this? 

314: 26. Where an ambiguous question arises. There is here a kind of 
double syllogism. See note on Clive, 134:9. 

318: 27. It is the fashion of the natives. The very abruptness of this 
apparent digression gives assurance that it is not a real one. 

336: 1. Not forget to do justice. Is this irony, or sarcasm? 

333: 3. A far more virtuous ruler. Lord William Bentinck. See the 
conclusion of the essay on Lord Clive. 

333: 25. The spirit of the Portuguese government. "Above all things 
the Portuguese were knights errant and crusaders, who looked on every 
pagan as an enemy at once of Portugal and of Christ. It is impossible for 
any one who has not read the contemporary narratives of their discoveries 
and conquests to conceive the grossness of the superstition and the cruelty 
with which the whole history of their exploration and subjugation of the 
Indies is stained." — Dr. Birdwood. 

338: 5. Till the low coast of Bengal was fading from the view. One 
famiUar with the graphic power which Macaulay brings to everything he 
writes might read these essays almost without suspecting that he had ever 
been in India. Yet it Is well to remind ourselves that his vivid descrip- 
tions of Indian scenes and his acute comments upon Oriental character 
were the result of his own personal observation. It is manifest that this 
particular sentence was written from a picture still sharp in his memory. 
As the scene had looked to him only three years before, so must it have 
looked to Hastings more than fifty years before. 

338: 11. Horace's Otium Divos rogat. Horace's Odes, II. 16. The 
tenor of the ode is as follows: "For rest the sailor and the savage warrior 
pray alike, but wealth cannot buy it. Riches and power cannot remove 
care from the dwelhng. The humble alone are free. Why do we aim at 
so much happiness in this short life, and run to foreign lands? We cannot ' 
fly from ourselves nor from care," etc. 

339: 28, As Hannibal . . at Waterloo, etc. The point of these 
comparisons lies of course in the diflferent ages in which the actors lived, 
yet they are carefully made in another respect: Hannibal, the Cartha- 
ginian general, fought on land as did Wellington, while Themistocles, the 
hero of Salamis, fought, like Nelson, on sea. 

341: 4, The trunkmakers and the pastry-cooks. That is, the docu- 
ments, unsold and unread, went to line trunks and pans. 

343: 29. From the ministry. This was the ministry of William Pitt 
the second, who was made Prime Minister in 1783 in his twenty-fifth year. 
He had great difficulty in forming a ministry. He was the only member 
of the House of Commons in his own Cabinet, but the Tories rallied to his 



NOTES 293 

side, the industrial classes supported him, and he speedily rose to a posi- 
tion of power. Among the Opposition were the great Whig leaders, Fox 
and Burke. 

245: 29. By any public ynan. I.e., by any other public man, for 
Burke had never been in India. 

245: 32. So much sensibility. "Macaulay, in a famous passage of 
dazzling lustre and fine historic color, describes Burke's holy rage against 
the misdeeds of Hastings as due to his sensibility. But sensibility to what? 
Not merely to those common impressions of human suffering which kindle 
the flame of ordinary philanthropy, always attractive, often so beneficent, 
but often feo capricious and so laden with secret detriment. This was no 
part of Burke's type. It was reverence rather than sensibility, a noble 
and philosopliic conservatism rather than philanthropy, w^hich raised the 
storm in Burke's breast against the rapacity of English adventurers in 
India, [and the imperial crimes of Hastings." — John Morley: Edmund 
Burke. 

246: 14. A real country and a real people. See note on 238:5. Sir 
George Otto Trevelyan, Macaulay's nephew and biographer, praises the 
passage that follows for its force and fidelity. 

246: 25. The yellow streaks of sect. A badge of sect, worn in the 
middle of the forehead. 

251: 13. The Chancellor of the Exchequer. William Pitt. The Keeper 
of the Great Seal is the Lord High Chancellor, in this case Lord Thurlow. 

260: 1. Historian of the Roman Empire. Edward Gibbon. 

260: 16. Her to whom the heir of the throne had plighted his faith. The 
Prince of Wales, afterward George the Fourth, was secretly married to Mrs. 
Maria Anne Fitzherbert in 1785. 

260: 18. The beautiful mother of a beautiful race. Elizabeth Ann 
Sheridan, first wife of Richard Brinsley Sheridan, and grandmother of 
"the three beauties," Lady Dufferin, the Hon. Mrs. Norton, and the Duchess 
of Somerset. As* Miss Linley she was celebrated for her beauty and her 
singing in oratorios, and she sat to Reynolds for St. Cecilia and the Virgin. 

261: 11. The great Proconsul. See Clive, 115:29. 

261: 30. A bag and sword. The bag was a pouch to hold the back 
hair of a wig. 

262: 35. Charles, Earl Grey. Note here again the writer's studied 
method of suspending the name in a personal tribute for emphasis. Earl 
Grey was long a prominent Whig; he introduced the Reform Bill, which 
Macaulay helped to carry in 1832, and was naturally one of Macaulay's 
most admired friends. He was still living when this was written. 

266: 11. Debates on the Regency. During the temporary madness 
of George III., the Prince of Wales advanced the claim of a right to the 
Regency. 



294 NOTES 

373: 4. Malignant . . baboon. Macaulay manifestly held this lam- 
pooner in great contempt. In his essay on Madame D'Arblay he speaks 
of him as "the polecat Williams." See Introduction, 18. 

374: 21. A red riband. This refers to the badge of the Knights of 
the Bath. See Standard Dictionary plate of "Decorations," No. 19. By 
"a coronet" is meant a peerage. 

After reading this essay, in justice to Hastings the following words, 
by Captain Trotter, ought to be read: 

"Few statesmen indeed have paid so heavily for the sins of other men, 
or have suffered such cruel and prolonged injustice from the passions and 
prejudices, both personal and political, of their own age. In view of the 
evils wrought even now by party rancor and political prejudice, it is easy 
to understand how Hastings' preeminent services to his country came to 
be rewarded, in his own words, 'with confiscation, disgrace, and a life of 
impeachment.* And much of the evil wrought by the malignity of Francis 
and the eloquence of Burke and Sheridan still lives in the 'splendid romance' 
woven by Macaulay out of documents which a calmer and more careful 
workman would have conned with very different eyes." 

And perhaps the following, by J. S. Cotton, should be read in justice 
to Macaulay: 

"The bibliography dealing with Warren Hastings is not large. The 
histories of Mill and Thornton both adopt a standpoint that is on the whole 
adverse. The Memoirs, by Gleig, are too tedious to be read at the present 
day. The review of those Memoirs by Macaulay, despite its exuberance 
of color, its Whig partiality, and its proved inaccuracies, will not easily 
be superseded as the one standard authority." 



GLOSSARY 



Addington, Henry. Speaker of the 
House of Commons who succeeded 
Pitt in the ministry in 1801; "a 
weak and narrow-minded man, as 
bigoted as the king himself." (J. R. 
Green.) 274:34. 

alguazil (Spanish). A constable. 
202:5. 

Anti'ochus. King of Syria, subdued 
by Pompey the Great, b. c. 65. 
138:22. 

Archangel. The northernmost district 
of Russia. 152:1. 

Atahualpa. The Inca ruler of Peru, 
executed by Pizarro. See Pres- 
cott's Conquest of Peru, III. 7. 
39:6. 

Augustulus, The last Roman emperor 
of the West, compelled by Odoacer 
to abdicate. 154:33. 

Aurungzebe. Great Mogul, or Em- 
peror of Hindustan, died 1707. 
50:4. 195:3. 

Baber. See Tamerlane. 49:3. 

Bacon, Francis. English philosopher 
and statesman, convicted in 1621 
of bribe-taking. 258:34. 

Baillie, John. Captain in India dur- 
ing the Mahratta war. 208:22. 

banditti (Italian). Robbers. A plural 
word, apparently used by Macaulay 
in a collective sense. 201:29. 

bang, or bhang. Dried leaves of 
Indian hemp, used as an intoxicant; 
hashish. 51:17. 

Harwell, Richard. Member of the 
Bengal Council who sided with 
Hastings. 172:35. 

Bath, Knights of the. An order deriv- 
ing its name from the ancient cere- 
mony of bathing as a part of the 



inauguration of knights. 133:4. 
251:7. 

Beaconsfield. Burke's estate, of about 
600 acres, in Buckinghamshire, 24 
miles from London. 246:31. 

Bedloe, William. See Popish Plot. 
179:10. 

Begum. Princess. 162:7. 222:11. 

Bentinck, Lord William. First gov- 
ernor-general of India, 1833; d. 
1839. 139:26. 

Bernier, Francois. French traveler in 
the Orient, court-physician to 
Aurungzebe. 51 :24. 

Black Town of Calcutta. The native 
quarter of Calcutta. 217:35. 

Bonaparte, Prince Louis , afterward Na- 
poleon III. He organized an unsuc- 
cessfulrevolution among the French 
soldiers in 1836 and was captured 
and imprisoned in 1840. 212:35. 

Bourbon, House of. A royal family 
which long reigned in France, Spain, 
and Naples, and which still reigns 
in Spain. 46:28. 

Bourne, Vincent (1695-1747). A writer 
of Latin verses, remembered as the 
teacher of Cowper. 144:1. 

Brooks's. A London clubhouse where 
the Whig leaders were accustomed 
to meet. 243:12. 

Burke, Edmund. Irish statesman, 
M. P.; supporter of Rockingham; 
advocate of peace with America ; ac- 
quiesced in the Coalition (which 
see) ; drafted the East India Bill, 
1783; opened the case for the im- 
peachment of Hastings, 1788. 
174:22. 

Buxar. In Bengal; scene of an Eng- 
lish victory by Sir Hector Munro, 
1764. 39:9. 



295 



296 



GLOSSARY 



byzant. A medieval coin of the 
Byzantine empire. 94:33. 

Byzantium. A Greek city, merged 
with Constantinople, the capitol of 
the Eastern Empire. 118:32. 

Calpe. Ancient name of Gibraltar. 
194:22. 

Captain Bobadil. A boastful coward 
in Jonson's Every Man in his 
Humor. 66:12. 

caput lupinum. "Wolf's head," i.e., 
something subject to bounty. 
169:27. 

Carlton House. The residence of the 
Prince Regent, George IV. 236: 
29. 

catchpole. One who arrests another 
for debt. 202:29. 

Charlemagne. Charles the Great, 
king of the Franks and emperor 
of the Romans, d. 814. 50:15. 

Charles I. King of England. Exe- 
cuted for treason, 1649. 259:2. 

Charles Martel. Duke of Austrasia, 
and Mayor of the Palace (major 
domo, or steward of the royal 
household) in 719. 119:14. 154:34. 

Charles the Tenth. King of France, 
1824-30. He issued arbitrary 
ordinances, restricting the freedom 
of the press, etc. 212:31. 

Cheltenham. A watering-place in 
Gloucestershire, Eng. 238:22. 

Chilperic, Childeric. See note on 
119:12. 

Chowringhee. A healthful quarter of 
Calcutta where the English Govern- 
ment Houses are built. 74:12. 

Christ Church. One of the largest 
and most aristocratic colleges of 
Oxford. 145:7. 

Churchill, Charles. Eighteenth cen- 
tury satirist who attached himself 
to John Wilkes. 144:2. 

Cicero. Roman statesman and orator; 
impeached Verres for plundering 
Sicily, 70 b. c. 260:2. 



Clarkson, Thos. (1760-1846). Eng- 
lish abolitionist. 245:17. . 

Clavering, Sir John. One of the coun- 
cillors of Bengal appointed in 17 73. 
"An honest, hot-headed soldier." 
173:2. 

Coalition, The. After the resignation 
of Lord North (Tory) in 1782, came 
the Whig ministry of Lord Rock- 
ingham, who died the same year 
The Shelburne Ministry which fol- 
lowed concluded the peace with the 
United States, but lasted only a 
very short time. Then (in 1783) 
was formed the Coalition be- 
tween the Whig followers of 
Fox and the Tory adherents of 
Lord North. This was supplanted 
at the end of the year by the 
ministry of William Pitt the sec- 
ond. 244:34. 

Colman, George (1732-1794). British 
dramatist. 144:2. 

Conway, Henry S. Aide-de-camp to 
the Duke of Cumberland, and later 
major general. 103:22. 

Coote, Sir Eyre. Captain at the 
battle of Plassey, 1757. Com- 
mander-in-chief in India, 1777. 
197:18. 

Covent Garden. A square in London 
near the Strand, where a vegetable, 
fruit, and flower market is held. 
275:30. 

Cowper, William (1731-1800). British 
poet of melancholy and retiring dis- 
position, much disturbed by 
religious doubts. 144:3. 

crimps. Men who made a business 
of decoying other men into military 
service. 67:24. 

Cumberland, Duke of, William Augus- 
tus. Younger son of George II. 
His "single victory" was over the 
Highlanders at Culloden, 1746. 
d. 1765. 71:27. 103:18. 

Cumberland, Richard ri732-1811). 
British dramatist. 144:2. 



GLOSSARY 



297 



Dangerfield, Thomas. Revealer of a 
pretended plot of the Duke of Mon- 
mouth against Charles II., 1679. 
179:10. 

de facto, de jure. In fact, in law. 
213:21. 

Demosthenes. The greatest Athenian 
orator. 262:7. 

dervise, dervish. A Mohammedan 
religious devotee vowed to poverty. 
206:33. 

Dilettante (Italian, "lover"). A Lon- 
don society of the eighteenth cen- 
tury devoted to the fine arts 
(properly Dilettanti, plural). 123: 
28. 

Dionysius. Tyrant of Syracuse; con- 
tended for the prize in tragedy at 
Athens; his poems said to have 
been hissed at the Olympic games. 
276:34. 

Dodd, William. English clergyman, 
author of Beauties of Shake- 
speare, etc. Executed for forgery, 
1777. 247:6. 

Domesday Book, or Doomsday Book. 
A record, made by William the 
Conqueror, of land-grants, etc. 
123:10. 

dotation. Dowry. 222:13. 

Downing Street. In the West End 
of London; the location of the 
treasury building and the foreign 
offices, whence the name is equiv- 
alent to "The Administration." 
230:18. 

Dundas, Henry (1742-1811). Scotch 
statesman, friend of William Pitt 
the Younger; created Viscount of 
Melville, 1802; impeached for mal- 
versation but acquitted, 1806. 
155:17. 

Elphinstone, Mountstuarfc. Governor 
of Bombay, 1819-27. 139:12. 

ermine. Emblematic of the office of 
judge, whose official robe was for- 
merly faced with this fur. 204:12. 



Exeter. Capital of Devonshire, in 
the extreme southwest of England. 
226:24. 

Ferdinafid the Catholic. Ferdinand V. , 
founder of the Spanish monarchy. 
40:5. 

flash-houses. Low resorts. 67:25. 

florin. An Austrian coin, worth two 
shillings. 94:33. 

Foote, Samuel. English dramatist 
and actor. One of his plays was 
The Nabob (1772), the hero of 
which is Sir Matthew Mite, an 
East India merchant, lavish of his 
wealth. 123:35. 

foundation. An endowment for 
scholarships. 145:3. 

Fox, Charles James. English states- 
man and orator. Entered Parlia- 
ment as a Tory, but later became 
a Whig. Formed with North in 
1783 the so-called Coalition Min- 
istry, which was defeated in the 
same year through his India Bill. 
241:23. 

Francis, Sir Phihp. Clerk at the War 
Office, 1762-72; Indian Councillor, 
1774; M. P. for Isle of Wight, 
1784. See Junius. 173:5. 244:3. 

Franconia. A region of Germany 
(one of the old duchies) south of 
Saxony. 153:16. 

Frederic the Great. He had a strong 
ambition to rank as a French 
author, but his verses were unread- 
able. 276:34. 

Frederick, Prince. Eldest son of 
George II. and father of George 
III.; died 1751. 70:6. 

Garter King-at-Arms. The chief 

herald. 259:8. 
general oflBcer. A military officer 

above the rank of colonel 201:10. 
Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire. 

Georgiana Cavendish; married the 

fifth Duke of Devonshire in 1774; 



298 



GLOSSARY 



canvassed for Fox whom her hus- 
band supported in the Westminster 
election of 1784. There is a famous 
portrait of her, painted by Gains- 
borough in 1783. 260:26.. 

Gog and Magog. Warring tribes 
prophesied of in Rev. xx. 8. 50:30. 

Golconda. A diamond mart near 
Hyderabad. 51:25. 

Gordon, Lord George. Primary in- 
stigator of the Gordon riots, an 
anti-Roman CathoUc demonstra- 
tion in London, 1780. 247:4. 

Grampound. A "rotten borough" in 
Cornwall. 106:3. 

Granby, Marquis of. John Manners, 
English general who served in 
Germany. 103:24. 

Grattan, Henry (1746-1820). Irish 
statesman and orator. 239:19. 

Great Captain. Gonsalvo Hernandez 
de Cordova, a general in the Span- 
ish wars against the Moors. 40:7. 

Grenville, George. British Prime 
Minister, 1763-1765. 105:7. 

Grey, Charles, Second Earl Grey 
(1764-1845). One of the managers 
of the impeachment of Hastings. 
See note on 262:35. 

Guildhall. The Council Hall of the 
City of London. 278:15. 

Hayley, William (1745-1820). A 
voluminous, mediocre author, who 
was ridiculed in Byron's English 
Bards and Scotch Reviewers. 
277:5. 

Hafiz and Ferdusi, or Firdausi. Per- 
sian poets of the fourteenth and 
the tenth centuries. The latter 
was the author of the epic Shah- 
namah. 151:4. 

Hebrew prophet. Jonah (iv. 9). 
175:19. 

Holkar. A Mahratta chief, d. 1811. 
39:11. 

Holwell, John Z. Surgeon in the 
East India Company. Survivor 



from the Black Hole, and narrator 
of the story. 76:11. 

Hosein. The adopted son of Ma- 
homet, who, supported by the 
Fatimites (so named from his 
mother, Fatima), aspired to be his 
successor. 62:4. 

houris. Nymphs of the Moslem para- 
dise. 62:23. 

Hugh Capet. King of France, 987- 
996. 212:24. 

Huntington, William, S. S. A coal- 
heaver and preacher. He explained 
that S. S. meant "Sinner Saved." 
126:14. 

Hyder AH. See 207:18. 

Hyperi'des. Athenian orator, pupil 
of Demosthenes. His oratory was 
graceful and powerful, holding a 
middle place between that of 
Lysias and Demosthenes. 262:7. 

imaum, imam. Reciter of prayers in 
a Mohammedan mosque. 246:20. 

Isis. The name of the upper portion 
of the Thames, which is joined by 
the Cherwell at Oxford. 143:12. 

Islam. The Mohammedan religion. 
62:5. 

Jacobins. Violent French Revolu- 
tionists of 1789. 122:17. 

jaghires. Government revenues from 
land. 124:7. 

Jeflferies, or Jeffreys, George. The 
notorious Chief Justice of the 
"Bloody Assizes" under James II. 
After the deposition of James he 
was placed in the Tower. 204:12. 

Jenkinson, Charles. Secretary at War 
under Lord North. 134:27. 

Junius. The pseudonym of a writer 
of a series of anonymous letters 
attacking the British ministry, 
published 1768-1772. The author- 
ship was long in doubt. . It is now 
commonly believed that they were 
written by Sir Philip Francis, a 



Ul^UbfeAK Y 



299 



Whig, who was then a clerk at the 
War Office. 173:18. 
Juvenal. A Roman satirist. His 
description of the crafty lonians is 
in Satire 3:60-78. 157:30. 

lac, one hundred thousand (usually 
of rupees) ; crore, ten million ; zem- 
indar, tax-payer; aumil, tax-col- 
lector; sunnud, charter; perwannah, 
official order; jaghire, revenue; 
nuzzur, present. 265:27. 

Lally, Thomas A. A French general 
of Irish descent, governor of 
Pondicherry, 1758. 135:7. 

Lansdowne, Lord. William Petty 
(1737-1805). One of the most un- 
popular statesmen of his time, 
perhaps because of his contempt of 
political parties. He held no office 
after 1783. 241:18. 

Lascars. East Indian sailors. 196:33. 

Las Casas (1474-1566). Spanish 
Dominican; bishop of Chiapa, 
Mexico; defender of the Indians 
against the harshness of the Span- 
ish conquerors. 245:16. 

Leadenhall Street. A London street 
where the offices of the East India 
Company were formerly situated. 
107:1. 160:10. 

Lely, Sir Peter. Dutch artist; court 
painter to Charles II. 141:1. 

Lenthall, WilUam. Speaker of the 
Long Parliament, 1640-1647, and 
1659. 142:8. 

Lloyd, Robert (1733-1764). Poet; 
friend of Churchill, Garrick, and 
Wilkes. 144:2. 

Logan, John (1748-1788). Scotch 
clergyman and poet. 272:34. 

Loughborough. See Wedderburn. 
264:23. 

LucuIIus. Roman general, conqueror 
of Mithridates and Tigranes in Asia 
Minor. 139:21. 

Maccaroni. A London club of the 
18th century, consisting of travelled 



young men, chiefly fops and 
gamesters. 123:28. 

Machiavelli, Niccolo. A Florentine 
statesman in the time of Cesare 
Borgia; his name has become 
synonymous with deceit in state- 
craft. 92:6. 

Mackenzie, Henry. Scotch dramatist 
and miscellaneous writer; author of 
a serial called The Lounger, written 
over various fictitious names, among 
them "Margery Mushroom." 124: 
7. 124:35. 

Maharajah. Great prince. 

Mansfield, Lord William Murray, 
Lord Chief Justice, 1756. Termed 
by Macaulay ' ' the father of modern 
Toryism." 241:16. 

Maria Theresa. Empress of Austria; 
daughter of Emperor Charles VI.; 
her title to the throne was disputed. 
46:28. 

Marlborough, Duke of. Victor at 
Blenheim, 1704. 95:15. 

Meer (Mir, Emir). Ruler, prince. 

Melville, Lord. See Dundas. 261:20. 

mesne (pronounced mean) process. A 
writ issued between the commence- 
ment of a legal action and its execu- 
tion. 200:24. 

Metcalfe, Charles T., Lord. Pro- 
visional governor-general of India, 
1835-6. 139:12. 

Mill, James. Philosopher. Author of 
History of India, 1818. 40:16. 

Minden and Warburg. Battles in 
which Prince Ferdinand of Bruns- 
wick, assisted by the British, 
defeated the French, 1759 and 
1760. 103:30. 

Mite, Sir Matthew. See Foote. 
125:15. 

Mogul. Title of the Emperor of 
Delhi, member of the house of 
Tamerlane, who founded the Mon- 
gol Empire in Hindustan. 49:3. 

mohur. East India coin, worth about 
seven dollars. 159:28. 



300 



Ui^USbAtl Y 



Monson, Hon. George. Member of 
the Bengal Council; died in India 
in 1776. 173:2. 

Monsieixr Jotirdain. A character in 
Mohere's comedy, Le Bourgeois 
Gentilhomme; a rich upstart who 
tries to wear the manners of a 
gentleman. 123:20. 

Montague, Mrs. Elizabeth (1720- 
1800). A celebrated "blue-stock- 
ing" who made her home a center 
of wit and fashion. 260-23. 

Montezuma. Aztec emperor, im- 
prisoned by Cortez. See Prescott's 
Conquest of Mexico, Yl. 39:6. 

Moore, Dr. John. Scotch physician, 
author of Zeluco, a novel (1786), 
and works of travel. 135:19. 

Mucius Scaevola. A legendary Roman 
hero who thrust his hand into the 
fire to show that he could not be 
terrified by the threat of torture 
and death. 158:21. 

Munro, Sir Hector. British com- 
mander. Won the battle of Buxar, 
1764; at Porto Novo, 1781. 208:21. 

Munro, Sir Thomas. Governor of 
Madras, 1819. 139:12. 

nabob. The native governor of an 
East Indian province. The name is 
often humorously applied to men 
who become wealthy in India. 
44:24. 

Nelson, Admiral. Hero of Trafalgar, 
1805. 95:15. 

Newcastle, Duke of. Prime Minister 
of England, 1754-56 and 1757-62. 
70:15. 

Newington. A part of London south 
of the Thames. 143:31. 

Nizam. Ruler. 26:44. 

North, Lord. Prime Minister under 
George III., 1770-82. 172:18. 

Gates, Titus. See Popish Plot. 179:10. 

Odoacer. A barbarian chieftain under 

Attila in the fifth century; entered 



the Roman army and usurped the 
rule of the Western Empire. 118: 
25. 

Old Sarum. One of the notorious 
"rotten boroughs" swept away by 
the Reform Act of 1832 to make 
place for commercial boroughs like 
Manchester and Leeds. In 1832 
there was not a house in it. 175:30. 

Opposition. The political party out 
of power and opposed to the ad- 
ministration. 248:33. 

Orissa, Idol of. The Juggernaut, to 
which human sacrifices were made. 
51:29. 

Orme, Robert. Historiographer to 
the East India Company. He 
secured Clive's appointment. 40: 
18. 

Ouse (pronounced ooze). The Great 
Ouse, a river in eastern England. 
Olney, the home of Cowper, the 
"Recluse of Olney," was situated 
upon it. 144:16. 

pagoda. A gold coin of India, bear- 
ing the figure of a pagoda, worth 
$1.94. 151:33. 159:28. 

Palais Royal. The old royal palace 
in Paris. 236:30. 

Pannonia. Ancient name of Hun- 
gary. 50:32. 

Pantheon. A temple or gathering of 
all the gods. Often used figura- 
tively. 272:16. 

Parr, Samuel (1747-1825). English 
scholar, famed for the variety of 
his knowledge. 260:10. 

parts. Abilities. 42:31. 

Patna. Scene of a massacre of British 
prisoners by Meer Cossim, Nabob 
of Bengal, 1763. 39:10. 

Pepin the Short. King of the Franks 
in the eighth century. Son of 
Charles Martel. 119:14. 154:34. 

Perceval, Spencer. Chancellor of the 
Exchequer during the Peninsular 
War. 231:2. 



GLOSSARY 



301 



Pigot, George. Baron Pigot, governor 
of Madras (1775), brought to Eng- 
land the famous Pigot Diamond, 
which was afterward crushed to 
powder. 107:4. 

Pitt, WiUiam (1708-1778). "The 
Great Commoner." First Earl of 
Chatham. Premier after the fall of 
Rockingham in 1766. 103:3. 

Pitt, William (1759-1806). "The 
Younger." Second son of William 
Pitt, Earl of Chatham. Prime 
Minister after the fall of North and 
Fox (see Coalition), 1783. See note 
on 242:29. 155:17. 

Pizarro. Conqueror of Peru. 111:18. 

Plantagenets. The English line of 
Kings from Henry II. to Richard 
III. 258:26. 

Pollilore. The scene of a battle be- 
tween the English under Coote and 
the forces of Hyder Ali, 1781. 
198:9. 

Popish Plot. An alleged conspiracy of 
the Roman Catholics against the 
British Government and the life of 
Charles II., 1678. Its chief fabri- 
cator was Titus Gates. One William 
Bedloe, an adventurer, also pre- 
tended knowledge of it. Lord 
Stafford was accused of being one 
of the conspirators, and was con- 
victed and executed. 187:12. 

Porto Novo. Scene of a victory by Sir 
Eyre Coote over Hyder Ali in 1781. 
See map, and 210:1. 198:8. 

Powis, Lord. Clive's eldest son. 
40:30. 

Pundit. A learned Brahmin. 233:20. 

quit-rent. A form of rent the pay- 
ment of which absolves from all 
other service. 100:25. 

rajah. Prince. 

Resident. The representative of the 

British government at a native 

court of India. 223:33. 



resume. In legal usage to take back, 
as rights once granted. 224:10. 

Reynolds, Sir Joshua (1723-92). 
British artist and portrait painter. 
260:7. 

Richelieu, Cardinal. French states- 
man, minister of Louis XIII. 
279:26. 

Ricimer. A barbarian of the fifth 
century, who was educated as a 
Roman, made a patrician, and vir- 
tually ruled the Western Empire. 
118:24. 

Rockingham, Lord Charles Watson- 
Wentworth. Whig leader of the 
Opposition in the House of Lords, 
1768-81; Prime Minister from 
March, 1882, till his death in the 
same year. 129:24. 

Roe, Sir Thomas. Diplomatist under 
James I., ambassador to the court 
of the Mogul. 51:24. 

roi faineant. "Do-nothing King." 
Term applied to the later Merov- 
ingians. Cp. pages 118, 119. 195: 
31. 

Runjeet Sing. Founder of the Sikh 
Empire; d. 1839. 51:28. 

rupee. The standard monetary unit 
of British India, worth about two 
shiUings, or fifty cents. 93:12. 

Sackville. George Sackville Germain. 
English commander, dismissed from 
the army for cowardice at the 
battle of Minden, 1759. 103:25. 

Sahib. Master; usually applied to 
Europeans, as the equivalent of Mr. 

St. James's Square. In Western Lon- 
don; crowded with aristocratic 
mansions and clubs. 149:9 

St. Peter's. The cathedral at Rome, 
designed by Michelangelo. 49:10. 

salam, salaam. A deep bow. 193: 
15. 

Sandwich, Lord. John Montagu, 
fourth Earl of Sandwich, after 
whom the Sandwich Inlands are 



302 



GLOSSARY 



named. He was first Lord of the 
Admiralty under the North admin- 
istration, and a dexterous poUtical 
jobber. 189:35. 

Saracens. Mohammedan enemies of 
the Christians. 50:33. 

Saxe; Frederick. Count Maurice de 
Saxe, a French Marshal, and Fred- 
erick the Great, King of Prussia, 
both of whom were in active career 
in the middle of the eighteenth 
century. 54:17. 

Scott, Major John. The political agent 
sent by Warren Hastings to Eng- 
land in 1780, to whose ill-judged 
zeal the impeachment of Hastings 
was largely due. 169:19. 240:16. 

sepoy. An oriental soldier in Euro- 
pean service. 

Seward, Anna (1747-1809). Authoress 
known as "The Swan of Lich- 
field." 277:5. 

Sheldonian theatre. Theatre at Ox- 
ford, where honorary degrees are 
conferred, etc. Founded by Arch- 
bishop Sheldon. 278:7. 

Sheridan, Richard Brinsley. Son of 
Thomas Sheridan the actor. Dra- 
matist and parliamentary orator; 
made a speech of six hours against 
Hastings in 1787; one of the man- 
agers of the impeachment, 1788. 
255:29. 

Shore, John, First Baron Teignmouth. 
Governor-General of India, 1793- 
98. 238:12. 

Siddons, Mrs. (Sarah Kemble). Eng- 
lish tragic actress. 259:33. 

Sidney, Algernon. English patriot, 
supporter of Monmouth, beheaded 
1683. 158:23. 

Simpkin's letters. Published pseu- 
donymously. A burlesque by Cap- 
tain R. Broome, who signed him- 
self "Simkins the Second." 273:1. 

Sir Charles Grandison. The hero of 
Richardson's novel of the same 
name in which he is the extremely 



courteous lover of Harriet Byron. 
237:28. 

Smith, Adam. Scotch political econ- 
omist, author of the Wealth of 
Nations, 1776. 128:3. 

Somers, John, Baron. English states- 
man. Impeached and acquitted in 
1701. 258:34. 

Somerset House. The home of various 
government offices in the Strand, 
London. 230:19. 

South Sea Year. In 1720 a financial 
panic was created in Great Britain 
by the collapse of a vast specula- 
tive scheme for controlling the 
South American trade. 107:14. 

Spanish Juntas. Spanish legislative 
assemblies, notably those convened 
by Napoleon. 231:2. 

sponging-houses. Places where those 
arrested for debt were given tem- 
porary lodging to avoid regular 
imprisonment in case the debt 
were paid. 201:31. 

States-General. The legislative as- 
semblies of France before the Revo- 
lution of 1789. 266:15. 

Stoics. Greek philosophers of the 
school founded by Zeno. 158:13. 

Strafford. Thomas Wentworth, Earl 
of. Impeached by the Long Parlia- 
ment; condemned and executed, 
1641. 258:35. 

Sudder. "Supreme." 106:24. 

Sujah Dowlah, or Surajah Dowlah, or 
Siraj-ud-Daula. See pages 74, 75 
39:10. 

Supererogation, Works of. In Cath- 
olic theology, good works beyond 
the requirements of the law, held 
to counteract evil done against the 
law. 253:29. 

Tacitus, Cornelius, Roman historian 
and orator, conducted the prosecu- 
tion of Marius, proconsul of Africa, 
99 A. D. 260:4, 

Tamerlane. Timur, or Timur-Leng, 
a Tatar conqueror, 1333-1405. 



GLOSSARY 



303 



His great-grandson, Baber, founded 
the Mogul Empire. 49:2. 

tanks. Reservoirs, used in irrigating. 
208:30. 

Te Deum, The hymn, Te Deum 
Laudamus, "We praise thee, O 
God," sung on occasions of special 
thanksgiving. 56:29. 

Theodoric the Great. The king of the 
East Goths, who assassinated 
Odoacer, the ruler of the Western 
Empire, and founded the East 
Gothic Empire. 118:31. 

Theodosius. The last Roman emperor 
to repel the invasion of the Goths. 
50:12. 

Thxirlow, Edward. Lord High Chan- 
cellor.under the younger Pitt. 241 :34. 

Tigranes. Ruler of Armenia, con- 
quered by Lucullus b. c. 69. 138:22. 

Trajan. Roman emperor, conqueror 
of the Dacians. 139:21. 

Trissotin. A pedant in Moliere's Les 
Femmes Savantes. 276:10. 

Turcaret. The chief character in a 
French comedy by Le Sage; a 
vulgar fellow who makes a fooUsh 
use of his ill-gotten wealth. 123:20. 

Turgot. French statesman of the 
eighteenth century who introduced 
many political and financial re- 
forms. 139:24. 

Tyler, Wat. Leader of the peasants' 
revolt, 1381. He is said to have 
killed a tax-gatherer who insulted 
his daughter. 201:12. 

Vansit'tart, Henry. Governor of Ben- 
gal; lost in shipwreck on way to 
India, 1770. 148:4. 

Verres. Roman governor of Sicily, 
brought to trial for plundering the 
province. Cicero made one of his 
famous speeches against him. 
111:18. 

Versailles. Near Paris; site of the 
royal palace of Louis XIV. and 
his successors. 49:13. 



Wallenstein. Austrian general, hero 
of Schiller's dramatic trilogy of the 
same name. 46:19. 

Walpole, Horace (1717-97). Author 
of The Castle of Oiranto and many 
memoirs and letters. 105:12. 

Walpole, Sir Robert. English states- 
man, Prime Minister under George 
II. d. 1745. 71:5. 

Wandewash. In southern India; the 
scene of the defeat of the French 
under Lally by the British under 
Coote, 1760. 209:32. 

Wedderburn, Alexander, Lord Lough- 
borough. Scottish advocate, who 
became Lord Chancellor in 1793. 
240:8. 

Wellington, Duke of. Hero of Water- 
loo, 1815. 95:16. 

Whitehall. A London thoroughfare 
leading from Trafalgar Square to the 
Houses of Parliament; the site of 
many government offices. 274:22. 

Wilberforce, William (1759-1833). 
English philanthropist, interested 
in reform of criminal law, abolition 
of slavery, etc. 254:18. 

Wilkes, John. See note on 105:9. 

William Rufus. William II., d. 1100. 
He began the building of West- 
minster Hall. 258:31. 

Williams, John (1761-1818). Satirist 
and miscellaneous writer. He took 
his pseudonym from the name of 
a witty Roman tailor of the fif- 
teenth century, whence also the 
word "pasquinade." 273:4. 

Windham, William (1750-1810). One 
of the members of Parliament 
charged with the impeachment of 
Hastings. 256:12. 

Wolfe, James. British general, killed 
at the battle of Quebec, 1759. 
103:16. 

Woodfall, Henry S. Conducted the 
Public Advertiser in which the 
"Letters of Junius" were pub- 
Ushed. See Tunius. 175.10. 



304 



GLOSSARY 



Tvoolsack. Figurative for the office 
of Lord High Chancellor, his seat 
being a cushion stuffed with wool. 
269:19. 



zemindar. A native East Indian 
landlord who paid a land-tax to 
the British government. 236:26. 



NOV e 1909 



I COPY. nB,. TO CAT. OIV. 

NOV' 8 11909 



